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Jubilee jEMtion 



Fifty Years a Queen 



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BY 



KATHERINE HODGES 




NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 

BELFORD, CLARKE & COMPANY 

1887 



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copyright: 
BELFOIiD, CliARKK & CO. 

X 1887. 



7 



TO 

ERASTUS WIMAN, ESQ., 

A DISTINGUISHED BlilTISH SUBJECT 

WHO IS A PROMINENT FACTOR IN AMERICAN COMMERCE, 

POTENT IN MAINTAINING 

FRIENDLY RELATIONS BKTWEEN THE UNITED STATTCS AND CANADA, 

AND A LEADING SPIRIT IN PROMOTING 

THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE 

OK THissroa oiTTars Atlantic, 

THIS BOOK 
IS RESPECTFULLY Dv:DICATED. 



PREFACE. 



In this work, x)ertment to tlie time, the intent of the 
author hiis been to give, from an American staudj^oint, a 
brief and unbiassed resume of the events of Queen 
Victoria's time, and of her reign of half a century. 

Contemporaneously with the iifty years of her 
sovereignty, the marked i)rogress made iu Great Britain 
has been equalled, if not exceeded, by that made in the 
United States. Both nations have made enormous 
material growth within tbat period; and in the friction 
of events between the mother country and our own, the 
sentiment of good ueighborship manifested towards us 
by the Queen of England invites the recognition of the 
American x)eoi)le, since, in addition to its pleasing 
aspect, it has been a factor in the harmony preserved be- 
tween the Uuited States and Eugland through her reign. 

In our day of need, when tlie exigencies of civil war 
were taxiugto its utmost our country, it should be re- 
membered to the houor of Victoria that she steadfastly 
refused the earnest eutreaty of ISTapoleon III. that 
England should unite with France in the establishment 
of an empire in Mexico, and that she also declined his 
api^eal that Great Britain should join France in the 
recognition of the Confederate Government as a belliger- 
ent power. She refused to take advantage of our 
critical situation, and to imperil our grand union at that 
time. When America lost its great men, Lincoln, Gar- 
field, and Grant, her sympathy was as promptly and 
tenderly expressed as it has been in other national 
calamities. She has also been a power in the moralities 
of the age. All these are reasons in favor of a general 
celebration of her jubilee on this side of the water, ns 
well as in Britain. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Birth of Queen Victoria — Her Baptism and Sponsors — Derivation of- Her Name 
Victoria— Her Place in the Succession to the Throne Remote — Arrival of the Duke and 
Duchess of Kent in England — The Duke of Kent's Circumstances — Death of George III. — 
George IV. Ascends the Throne— Death of the Duke of Kent Page 5 

CHAPTER IL 

The Duchess of Kent's Second Widowhood — Her Devotion to the Baby Princess— Sen- 
sible Management of Her Children and Household— Close Relations of the Royal Mother 
and Child— Glimpses of the Little Princess from Her Pirst Year — Happy Home Life and 
Methodical Habits— Death of the Duke of York — The Princess Victoria Becomes Heir Pre- 
sumptive to the Throne— George IV. Threatens to Remove the Princess out of Her Mother's 
Care Page 11 

CHAPTER IIL 

Peculiarities ot George IV. — His Management of His Daughter — The Princess Char- 
lotte of Wales— The Duchess Keeps the Young Princess from His Court — The Royal 
Mother Fears the Removal of the Princess from Her Keeping Page 18 

CHAPTER IV. 

Letters from the Duchess of Coburg to the Duchess of Kent — The Birth of Prince Albert 
— Marriage of the Princess Feodore, the Princess Victoria's Sister— The Last Appearance of 
the Princess at the Court of George IV.— Death of King George IV. — William IV. Begins to 
Reign— The Duchess of Kent NamedRegent Page 30 

CHAPTER V. 

King William Desires the Presence of the Princess at His Court — Sir Walter Scott Pre- 
sented by King Leopold of Belgium to Princess Victoria — The Princess Learns Her Place in 
the Succession to the Crown — Death of the Dowager Duchess of Coburg — N. P. Willis's 
Description of Queen Adelaide and the Princess — William IV. Becomes Angry at a Birthday 
Dinner — The Prmcess Victoria in Tears Page 36 

CHAPTER VI. 

Interesting Early Associations of the Princess Victoria and Prince Albert— Incidents of 
Prince Albert's Youth and Childhood — The Princess Victoria's First Mee!lng^vith Prince 
Albert — She is not Anxious to Marry Him Page 44 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Princess Victoria Comes of Age — Rejoicing Throughout the Kingdom — Death of 
William IV. — Victoria Awakened from a Sound Sleep to be Informed that She is the Queen 
of England — Her Majesty Holds Her First Court at Kensington Palace — The Young Queen 
Receives the Homage of Her Subjects Page 53 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Victoria Proclaimed Queen at St. James's Palace — Description of the Queen on Her 
Proclamation — Prince Albert's Letter to the Queen on Her Accession to the Throne — Her 
Majesty's Household — The Queen's First Appearance in the House of Lords — Charles Sum- 
ner Hears the Queen's First Speech from the Throne — The Queen Confers the Order of 
Knighthood on the First Jew, Sir Moses Montefiore — Disraeli in the First Parliament Pre- 
sided over by the Queen Page 59 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Queen takes Possession of Buckingham Palace — Her Majesty's New Throne- 
Prince Albert Writes of the Queen — How the Duke of Wellington Managed George IV. — 
Queen Victoria's Management of the Duke — Prince Albert Sends the Queen Tokens from 
Abroad — Gilts Treasured by the Queen — The Queen's First Christmas at Windsor Castle — 
Troublesin Victoria's Early Reign — The Sovereign Discharges Her Father's Debts... Page 65 

CHAPTER X. 

The Coronation of Victoria— Splendors of the Coronation Ceremony — Prince Albert 
Declared of Age — The Princes Albert and Ernest Arrive in England— '1 he Queen Ofters 
Her Hand and Heart to Prince Albert— Engagement of the Queen and Prince — Her Majesty 
Informs Her Privy Council of Her Approaching Marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg- 
Gotha Page 72 

CHAPTER XI. 

Joy in England over the Coming Marriage of the Queen — Official Declaration of the 
Marriage in Coburg — The Queen is Congiatulated by Parliament on Her Happy Engage- 
ment — Envoys Leave England to Conduct the Prince from Coburg — Prince Albert Received 
by the Queen at Buckingham Palace — Marriage of the Queen and Prince — The Royal Pair 
go to Windsor Castle for their Honeymoon Page 83 

CHAPTER XII. 

Rejoicing over the Marriage of the Queen — The People Cheer the Queen's Mother — The 
Queen's First Levee after Her Marriage at which the Prince Appears — Formation of Prince 
Albert's Household — Affecting Partings — Whigs versus Tories — The Queen's Twenty-first 
Birthday — Her Majesty is Shot at for the First Time — Prince Albert is Made Regent in 
Contingent Circumstances — Birth of the Princess Royal Page 93 

CHAPTER XIII 

Baptism of the Princess Royal — The Queen Opening Parliament — Incidents of the 
Melbourne Ministry — Parliament Prorogued — The Queen Holds the Last Drawing-room of 
the Season — Sir Robert Peel Succeeds Lord Melbourne as Prime Minister — Prince Albert 
Becomes President of the Fine Arts Commission — Discovery of Young Jones in Her 
Majesty's Private Rooms in Buckingham Palace — Royal Housekeeping Page 103 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Birth of the Prince of Wales — The Baptism of the Prince — Sponsors of the Prince 
of Wales- -Their Future King Shown to the People — The King of Prussia Witnessing the 
Opening of Parliament — Troubles Abroad and Uneasiness at Home — A Large Deficit and 
National Distress — The Disaster at Cabul — Gaieties Instituted at Court to Stimulate Com- 
merce— A Second Attempt on the Queen's Life— The Third Effort to Shoot Her Majesty. 
Page III 

CHAPTER XV. 

Trouble with the Afghans — English and Afghan Situation — Dilemma Forced upon Sir 
Alexander Burns — A.ltered Despatches — Massacre of the British Forces at Cabul — Fetes and 
Festivals Instituted by the Queen — The Peel Ministry Dismayed and England Appalled. 
Page 123 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Prince Albert's Brother Comes to Spend His Honeymoon in England— Death of the 
Duke of Orleans — The Queen's First Visit to Scotland — Enthusiastic Welcome from the 
Scots to their Sovereign — Queen Victoria in Holyrood Palace— Rooms in Holyrood once 
Occupied by Mary Queen of Scots- Room in which Queen Mary's Son was Born in Edin- 
burgh Castle — The Queen's Return to England — Some Complications Accommodated — Hos- 
tility to Prince Albert— Birth of the Princess Alice — Reform in the Royal Household. 
Page 130 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Queen Victoria's First Visit to the King of the French at the Chateau D'Eu — The French 
Royal Family Receives the Queen and Prince at Treport — The Queen and Prince in Bel- 
gium — " Poor Carlotta" — The Emperor of Rus^a on a Visit to the Queen — Peculiarities of 
the Czar — The King of Saxony at the Court of England — Royal Vicissitudes — Jealousy of 
Kings and Nations — Incidents of the Russian Emperor's Visit to England — Death of the 
Duke of Coburg— A Royal Love Letter Pai^e 140 



CHAPTE51 XVIII. 

The Queen Receives the King of the French at Windsor Castle — The Prince of Prussia 
at the English Court — Familiar Scenes — London Revisited by the French King — M. Guizot's 
Mention of the Queen — Birth of the Duke of Edinburgh — Complications Between France and 
England — Pointed Letters from the Queen to the King of the Belgians— Spanish Marriages 
—The Queen's Second Visit to Scotland Page 151 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Duelling Abolished in England — Prince Albert Becomes the Chancellor of the Univer- 
sity of Cambridge — The Queen Presides at the Chancellor's Installation and Receives His 
Speech— The International Exposition— Origin of the Crysta Palace— Schools of Design 
Instituted in England— Importance of Art Industry in Commerce — The Queen Purchases 
Osborne in the Isle of Wight — Petition to the Queen to Visit Ireland— The Queen in Ger- 
many—Germans Honoring the Queen and Prince — The Prince Keeps His Birthday ia 
Fatherland - - Page 159 

CHAPTER XX. 
Her Majesty Meets Old Acquaintances in Germany — The Queen and Prince Visit 
Belgium, and Make a Short Visit to Louis Philippe at Treport — The Galerie Victoria in the 
Chateau D'Eu — A Ministerial Crisis — Birth of the Princess Helena—The Royal Family in the 
Scottish Highlands — Revolution in Europe — Louise Philippe and Family Fly to England, 
and Receive an Asylum from the Queen — The Queen and Prince in Great Anxiety. .Page 170 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Birthof the Princess Louise — The Chartist Demonstration in London — Louis Napoleon 
Sworn in as Special Constable — The Uprising in Ireland— Famine in Ireland — A Fourth 
Attack Made Upon the Life of the Queen— Pate's Assault Upon Her Majesty — Death of 
Louis Philippe at Claremont — Louis Napoleon Becomes Emperor of France— The Queen 
Visits Ireland— Birth of the Duke of Connaught— Balmoral— Prince Albert Visits Napoleon 
III. — Birth of the Duke of Albany — The Crimean War in which France and England are 
Allies — Death of the Emperor of Russia— The Emperor and Empress of France are Guests 
of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle Page 181 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The Queen is Informed of the Fall of Sebastopol — Betrothal of the Princess Royal to 
Prince Frederick William of Prussia— Her Majesty's First Visit to Napoleon III.— Queen 
Victoria Makes Her Toilet for a Ball at Versailles in Marie Antoinette's Boudoir— The 
Empress Eugenie Dressed for a Ball —Birth of the Princess Beatrice— Marriage of the Prin- 
cess Royal — The Sepoy Rebellion — The Princess Ch rlotte of Belgium and Maximilian ot 
Austria at the English Court— The Queen's First Grandchild — Betrothal of the Princess 
Alice to Prince Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt Page 194 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The Twenty-first Anniversary of the Queen and Prince's Marriage — Death of the 
Duchess of Kent — Incidents in Her Majesty's Home Life — A Merry Scene at the Swiss 
Cottage — The Royal Children Mentioned by the Prince — The Prince of Wales in America — 
Civil War in the United States— Death of Prince Albert— Scenes at the Time of His Sickness 
and Death — Fears for the Queen —Norman McLeod Visits the Queen at Balmoral — Mar- 
riage of the Prince of Wales — Her Majesty's First Appearance at Festivities since Her Wid- 
owhood — Marriage of the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lome Page 205 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Queen's Congratulation over the Atlantic Cable to the President of the United 
States — Friendly Feeling to America — Sympathy to America on the Loss of its Great Men — 
The Sultan of Turkey and the Shah of Persia in England — Disraeli Becomes Prime Minister 
— The Conquest of Abyssinia — Capture of the Zulu King — Serious Illness of the Prince ot 
Wales — After Twelve Years of Widowhood Her Majesty wears a White Flower in Her Bon- 
net — Fall of the French Empire — The Emperor and Empress of France in Exile— The Queen 
Made Empress of India— Disraeli Created Earl of Beaconsfield Page 218 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Princess of Wales — The Duchess of Edinburgh and the Wives of the Other Princes 
—The Queen's Dominions— Courts of Other Times— Moral Aspects— Domestic Life of 
Queen Victoria — The Daughters of the Queen — The Crown Princess of Germany and 
the Princess Alice of Hesse- Darmstadt — Women's Industries in Germany — Teaching 
Women to Work and Opening Avenues of Labor — The Queen Encouraging Industrial and 
Domestic Art in England — Fifty Years' Reisn and Results of It Page 226 



CHAPTER I. 

THE BIRTH OF QUEEN VICTORIA— HER BAPTISM AND 
SPONSORS— DERIVATION OF HER NAME VICTORIA— HER 
PLACE IN THE SUCCESSION TO THE THRONE REMOTE- 
ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF KENT IN ENG- 
LAND— THE DUKE OF KENT'S CIRCUMSTANCES— DEATH OF 
aEORGEIIL — aEORGE IV. A.SCENDS THE THRONE— DEATH 
OF THE DUKE OF KENT. 

Oil tlie morning of May 24., 1819, the clingy old Palace 
of Kensington in London was in a state of commotion, 
wlien there was ushered into life a health}^ baby-girl, 
who is now Queen Victoria, and who has been the Queen 
of England, Irelan(l,and Scotland for the past fifty years, 
less a few months, and for a i)art of that time Empress of 
India besides. 

Something less than two years before the birth of this 
child, her cousin, the Princess Charlotte, the heir pre- 
sumi)tive to the English throne, and inexi)ressil)ly dear 
to the people, had passed out of life under especially 
touching circumstances. 

The Princess was the daughter of the Prince of Wales, 
afterwards George lY., and of his Avife Caroline of Bruns- 
wick, and the only child of that loveless marriage, 
notoriously a discordant one. She grew to womanhood, 
a gracious, beautiful, generous Princess, an idol of the 
English x)eople whose ho])e she was. When the adored 
young wife of less than a year, she died in giving birth 

to an heir to the crown of Great Britain. 

5 



6 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

This circumstauce had pluuged the nation into a pro- 
foimcl sorrow that was still fresh in the hearts of the 
people when the little stranger opened her blue eyes in 
Kensington Palace on that May day; but as no thought 
was then entertained of h-er being a future sovereign, 
her advent was not deemed a matter of much conse- 
quence at the time. 

The baby Princess was the daughter of the fourth son 
of George HI. of England — Edward, Duke of Kent, and 
of his Avife the Princess Maria Louise Victoria of Saxe- 
Ooburg-Saalfeld. When a month old she was baptized 
(June 24, 1819,) in the great saloon of the Palace, with 
all the porai) becoming the grand-daughter of a King. 

Her sponsors male were the Emi)eror of Kussia and 
the Prince Eegent of England; female, the Queen Dow- 
ager of Wurtenberg and the Duchess Dowager of 
Coburg, the two latter being represented respectively 
by the Princess Augusta and the Duchess Dowager of 
Gloucester. A superb baptismal font of gold was 
brought from the tower for the ceremony, nt which the 
Archbishop of Canterbnr3 , assisted by the Bishoi^ of 
London, ofliciated. 

In honor of the Emperor of Eussia and of her grand- 
father George III., the Princess was to be christened 
Alexandrina Georgina. There occurred, however, the 
startling reflection that one of these august names would 
have to be put in the second x)lace; and it having been 
decided that neither of them must be so slighted, as a 
way out of the dilemma, her mothers name, Victoria, was 
substituted for Georgina, and she was christened Alex- 
andrina- Victoria. As a child the little Princess was for 
a while called " Drina," an abridgment of the first 
name given her; but in time her own preference to honor 
her mother's name, by giving it the first place, was 
made plain by her desire to be called Victoria. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEK. 7 

In the succession to tbe tlirone, before the daughter of 
the Duke of Kent at the time of lier birth there were, 
besides her father, her uncle, tlio Prince Regent (who, 
on the death of his fatlier a lew months later, became 
George lY.), and her uncles, tiie Duke of York (child- 
less) and the Duke of Clarence, who had but lately lost 
a princess, and to whom there was a i^romise of other 
heirs. 

Indeed heirs to the English throne were then abund- 
ant. The King (George HI.), still living, had seven 
sons, " the royal brothers," four of them about as worth- 
less and disreputable a groui3 of scapegraces as ever 
made parents and the people generally miserable; while 
not one of them could be considered the wise and pru- 
dent ruler that makes a nation great and the people 
happy. 

The Prince Regent, try as he would, had not succeed- 
ed in getting rid of his wife, Caroline of Brunswick; and 
as he could not in consequence legally contract another 
marriage, the death of his daughter the Princess 
Charlotte, and that of the baby that died with her, made 
the exi)ectation of heirs to the throne from that branch 
of the royal family well-nigh out of the question. Fred- 
erick, Duke of York, had no children eligible to the 
crown. The Dukes of Clarence, of Kent, and of Cam- 
bridge had been married at about the same date, and soon 
after the death of the Princess Charlotte, from which 
marriages there were hopes of heirs. The Duke of 
Sussex had long been irregularly married, but as the 
marriage had been ])ronounced invalid, his children were 
not in the succession. Less than two months before the 
birth of little Alexandrina Yictoria, the Duchess of 
Clarence had given birth to the Princess Charlotte, who 
breathed feebly for a few hours and died. Again, on 
December 20, 1820, when the Duke of Kent's baby was 
about seven months old, the Princess Elizabeth was born 



8 jTil^TY YEARS A QUEEN. 

to tlie Duke and Diicliess of Clarence, to follow her wee 
sister out of the world after a brief three months of life, 
leaving tho royal small cousin as near to the crown of 
Great Britain as before her advent. 

On the 6th of i^ovember, 1817, the good aud charming 
Princess Charlotte lay dead with her baby boy in one of 
the rooms of what bad been her earthly paradise— Chire- 
mont. With the deaths of the Duke of Clarence's little 
daughter added to these, in the short period of about 
three years, four heirs, who would have taken prece- 
dence of the child born in Kensington Palace, on Ma^' 
24th, 1819, had been removed from the succession before 
her to the throne. 

The halo of the crown, however, was even then far 
removed from the head of the small Princess; so very 
far indeed that she was little thought of as the future 
Queen of England, except perhaps by her own father, 
who cherished such hope for her. 

The Duke of Kent, a man always in difficulties, was, 
just previous to the birth of his daugliter, exceedingly 
low in fortune; and for the means to make the journey 
to England so that his child might be born on his native 
soil, he was obliged to become indebted to a friend out- 
side of his own family. The i)oor man's condition had 
been one of chronic indebtedness. He seems to have 
grown up in that condition and to have remained in it to 
the last hour of his life. His father was harsh and un- 
just in his treatment of him. At the age of eighteen lie 
was sent out of England under the direction of a military 
Grovernor, Baron Wangenheim. A yearly allowance of 
1,000 pounds was made him, of which he was not allowed 
to touch a penny, except as it was doled out to him by 
tlie excellent Wangenheim, who was as fond as George 
III. himself of curbing the liberties of young persons, 
and reducing them when possible to a condition of abject 
submission. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. ' 9 

Finally, tlie Duke of Kent's allowance was increased to 
6,000 i)ounds a year; but as lie was only permitted to 
have for pocket money less tlmn two pounds a week, lie got 
in debt, ran away from the Baron, and returned to Eng- 
land. This was more tlian twenty years before the birth 
of Iiis daughter, and a cold reception he met at home on 
his arrival there. His fatlier refused to see him, and in- 
sisted upon his imraedijite departure from England. 
With this edict the Duke was obliged to comply; and 
he had to endure the moititication of having his travel- 
ling expenses entrnsted to the care of the captain of the 
ship in which lie sailed. 

For some years after this time the Diike of Kent lived 
abroad, occui^ying various positions. He was made 
Governor of Gibralter, Oommander-in-Cliief of the Brit- 
ish forces in British America, and for a while he was 
Field Marshal. On his return to England in 1807 he was 
in debt, owing more than 100,000 pounds, which he used 
the efforts in his poNver to pay, without, however, being 
successfnl. 

The Prince Regent's debts; the debts of the Dnkes 
of York, of Clarence, of Kent, of Cumberland, and of Sus- 
sex, together with the marriage portions of the three 
Dukes who had married in 1818, were subjects distract- 
ing the Parliament and the tax-paying people of England 
in that year. On their marriage, 6,000 pouiuls a year 
was settled on the Dukes of Kent and Cambridge. The 
Duke of Clarence, however, insisted upon an allowance 
of 10,000 i:)ounds a year, which he got. 

Seven royal marriages had taken place within two 
years, for which settlements had to be made. A great 
deal of money had to be provided for the mantainance of 
the various establishments of their royalties, and the 
demands of the Prince Regent for money to carry for- 
ward his exceedingly^ expensive methods was distracting 
to the Govermeut. 



10 FIJ^TY YEARS A QUEEN. 

Meantime the days of the King were drawing to a 
(ilose. The great bell of St Paul's sent forth its knell at 
midnight of January 29, 1820, announcing to sleeping- 
London the death of George III. He had been blind 
and insane for ten years. He passed out of life at the 
age of eighty-two, having survived his wife, Queen 
Charlotte, two years, two months, and some days. 

King George III. had reigned sixty years. He had 
lost to the Crown the principal American colonies — ,which 
Dickens termed, "that immense country, made independ- 
ent under Washington and left to itself, became the 
United States, one of the greatest nations of the earth." 
In that reign, however, the union with Ireland had been 
gained. George TV. ascended the throne at the age of 
fifty-nine years, succeeding his father as King of Great 
Britain and Ireland, January 29, 1820. 

Six days prior to the death of the king, the Duke of 
Kent died at his country home near Sidmouth, from the 
effects of a fever sui)erinduced by a cold. Tliis event 
was wholl}' unexpected. As usual, the Duke had con- 
tinued to be harrassed by debt. For the sake of economy 
he had moved his household to the place where death 
overtook him, and where his family were left in strait- 
ened circumstances. 

By the death of her father and grandfather, the baby- 
princess, "a little Drina," was borne still farther alongin 
the succession to the Crown of England. These deaths 
were forward steps, soon followed by others, that ad- 
vanced her nearer and nearer to the throne. 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE DUOHESS OF KENT'S SECOND WIDOWHOOD— HER 
DEVOTION TO THE BABY-PRINCESS -SENSIBLE MANAGE- 
MENT OF HER CHILDREN AND HOUSEHOLD — CLOSE RELA- 
TIONS OF THE ROYAL MOTHER AND CHILD — GLIMPSES OF 
THE LITTLE PRINCESS FROM HER FIRST YEAR— HAPPY 
HOME LIFE AND METHODICAL HABITS —DEATH OF THE 
DUKE OF YORK— THE PRINCESS VICTORIA BECOMES HEIR 
PRESUMPTIVE TO THE THRONE - GEORGE IV. THREATENS 
TO REMOVE THE PRINCESS OUT OF HER MOTHERS CARE. 

Before lier marriage in 1818, with theDiike of Kent, the 
Dncbess had been the widow of Prince Charles of Leiii- 
ingen. She was the youngest sister of Prince Leopohl, 
the widower of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, avIio 
had upon his marriage with the presumptive heir to tlie 
crown, received a settlement of 50,000 pounds a year. 
This being still continued to him, Priuce Leopold had 
tlie means as well as the disposition to offer his sister 
from time to time the assistance which she needed after 
her husband's death. 

By the decease of the Duke of Kent, the Duchess 
was for the second time a widow, with three children to 
care for, the Princess Fedore and Priuce Charles of 
Leiningen of her first marriage, and the Princess Alexan- 
drina Yictoria-the future sovereign of England — by her 
marriage with the Duke of Kent. 

Some years before his death, the Duke had given 
bonds to his creditors for the debts owing them, and 

11 



t2 FI^TY YEARS A QUESEN. 

these lie had acquitted with as much regularity as pos- 
sible whilst he lived. The liquidation of this indebted- 
ness, the widowed duchess conceived to be an obligation 
upon her to which she felt in honor bound; and from her 
limited income she paid what she could toward those 
debts. 

The duchess of Kent was a woman of excellent 
principles. Her moral standard was a lofty one, and she 
was besides a judicious as well as a tender mother. To 
all of her children she gave watchful care, her baby 
forming her cliief one. Instead of delegating that sacred 
duty to another, as ladies in her rank of life are wont to 
do, she nursed her baby at her own breast, and constantly 
watched over it with her own eyes. 

Averse to every species of idle display, this royal 
woman, with great good sense, regulated her household 
on simple, healthful methods; and she applied the same 
system of management to her children. 

A believer in fresh air as a j^rimary i^rinciple of good 
health, in suitable weather she had her baby kept much 
out-of-doors when her age rendered it feasible. The 
child's plain, wholesome food, regular hours for meals, 
abundant play and out-of-door exercise, together with 
plenty of sleep and an absence of all excitement, from 
which she was scrupulously guarded, made her merry 
and healthful, as loving to all about her and to her 
" dear, dear Boppy'' (her nurse, Mrs. Brock) as if she 
was not going to be the " sovereign ruler of the Nation." 

Bishop Wilberforce afforded a glimx)se of the close 
relationship maintained between the royal mother and 
her baby, and of the simple domesticity in their lives 
when the little Princess had entered upon her sf^cond 
year. "The Duchess of Kent," he said, "received 
me, with her fine animated child on the floor by her side, 
busy with her playthings." 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 13 

At the age of three years she used to be seen at Keu- 
singtou Gardens, attended by her mother, riding on the 
back of a donkey, gaily decked with floating bine rib- 
bons, answering politely and cheerfully those who 
accosted her. 

In her hai>py home, the j)rincely child had the 
loving society of other children. The most affectionate 
intercourse existed between her elder hnlf-sister and 
herself, this relation extending to her hnlf-brother. It 
was by no means an isolated little royal heart starving 
for natnral affection that beat in the bosom of the young- 
princess. On the contrary, it was one made sweet by 
a spontaneous active interchange of childish love and 
sympathy — a love that entered with her into child-land, 
taking grave cognizance of the beauty and other inter- 
esting phases i)eculiar to the charming realm of dolls 
and play -toys. 

When the princess was about five years old, Leigh 
Hunt mentions having seen her in Kensington Gardens, 
"walking up a cross-path from the Bayswater Gate 
with a little girl by her side, whose hand she was hold- 
ing as though she loved her." 

Probably the "little girl " was her half-sister the Prin- 
cess Fedore, who about that time was almost constantly 
Ler companion in her walks and rides, and whom she did 
love devotedly. 

There was no formality about the walks and rides of 
the little princess. Her safety being assured, she was 
not made helpless by needless restraint. On the con- 
trary, she was enconraged to enjoy herself as other 
healthy, high-spirited children do, by a good romp or 
run in the open air. 

About two years later than the period at which Lei^^h 
Hnnt saw her with her child companion in Kensington 
Gar(^ens, F.ord Albemarle recorded his observation of i lie 
movements of a pretty, bright little girl of seven years 



14 FIFTY YEARS A QUEElJf. 

of age who~ was watering plauts under one of the 
windows of Kensington Palace. The child was attired 
in a white cotton gown, with a large straw hat on her 
head, and the onl}^ ornamental feature of her dress was 
a colored fichu around her neck. This, he saj^s, " was the 
Princess Yictoria, now our gracious sovereign; and in 
a garb so simple did tbe Duchess of Kent array the 
regal child, whom she was carefully rearing to he tbe 
Queen of England. 

By her mother's side, tbe Princess had her breakfast 
of bread and milk and fruit at 8 o'clock on summer morn- 
ings. After that she walked, rode, or drove for an hour. 
Then lessons with her mother for two hours, followed by 
a good romp or I)la3^ Two o'clock brought her dinner 
hour — a dinner simple as tlie breakfast. Two hours 
more of lessons, and afterwards play or other recreation, 
finished the day, when sui)per and to bed at 9 o'clock 
punctually, the Princess was soon buried in healthful 
slumber. 

Punctuality marked every occupation of the young 
Princess; whether play, lessons, exercise, or sleep the 
hours were set for them, as was the time for meals. The 
value of her own time and that of other persons was 
a lesson inculcated by the Duchess on her child which 
afterwards bore good fruit. 

The mother had her little daughter at her meals, which 
she nnfailingl}^ sui^erintended. At her own luncheon 
hour, the Princess had her dinner, and at the Duchess's 
dinner-time, her little one had her supper. The chihl's 
small bed was by the side of her own, within re^h 
of her loving hand. Thus was the child always under 
the watchful care of the affectionate mother. 

A few months after the time that Lord Albemarle saw 
the young Princess watering flowers at Kensington 
Palace, another step in her advance towards the throne 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 15 

occured in the deatli of the Duke of York, her uncle, the 
second son of George III. He left no children. 

The Duke of Clarence, next in the succession after 
him, had had no other children after the two princesses 
who had passed out of life in the years 1819 and 1821. 
Next to her uncle of Clarence therefore, the Princess 
Victoria was heir presumptive to the Crown. 

Her stages in that progress had been marked by 
graves. Including those of the Princess Charlotte 
and her baby, seven of them could be numbered when 
this royal child, in her eighth year, had drawn still 
further within the shadow of sovereignty. 

Her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, hated the Princess 
cordially. To his view she was an "intruder" standing 
between him and the throne, to which he would have 
liked to attain. George lY., the "King-uncle," 
liked her bright beauty and childish, merry prattle. 
The effete oldi^rodigal desired that her youthful presence 
might brighten by its jo^'Ousness his Court and his life, 
and to that end he wished to see much more of her than 
her mother desired that he should. 

The Duchess dowager of Coburg, mother of the Duch- 
ess of Kent, was very fond and i)roud of the Princess 
Yictoria, her grand-daughter. Hundreds of pretty notes 
with regard to the child were written by the Duchess 
from her home in Coburg to her daughter in England. 
She appreciated thoroughly the position of this grand- 
child as a future Queen of England, and all that she wrote 
on the subject had the merit of being sensible as well as 
charming. 

"I see by the English papers," she says in a letter to 
her daughter, "that Her Eoyal Highness the Duchess 
of Kent went on Yirginia Water with His Majesty. The 
little monkey must liave pleased and amused him, she is 
such a pretty, clever child. " 



16 FIFTY TEARS A QUEEIN'. 

"The monkey" referred to was tlie young Princess, 
wlio did amuse "His Majesty," King George, very 
much. He expressed liimself charmed with the grace of 
her maimer. He found fault with the Duchess of Kent 
for keex)iiig his royal niece too much in seclusion — too 
much away from his Court and from his gracious 
presence. She was not formed ux)on tlie model that he 
would have her formed ui^on, and he used to threaten 
to have her removed from her mother's care and put into 
that of some one chosen by himself. 

The King liad the power to do this if he would. The 
Duchess, remembering his injudicious treatment of his 
own daughter, and all the indignities which he had put 
ui)on her, trembled for her child. 

If, however, he had formed any such intention, his 
interminable squables with Lis ministers, his j)erplexity 
in carrying on his government, his failing health, and 
his dissipatious and intrigues were factors in diverting 
his mind into other channels. 

In 182S, two years before his death, when the Princess 
Victoria was in her ninth year, the King used to com- 
l)lain that his Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, 
was " King of England ; O'Oonnell, King of Ireland ; and 
himself no more than Dean of Windsor." Whilst talk- 
ing in tnis strain to some confidant, the King would sug- 
gest his own abdication, when his brother William, the 
Duke of Clarence, might x)rove a more acceptable King, 
or the Princess Victoria might be educated to the tastes 
of the i)eople, and reign as Queen. 

^Nevertheless, it was not a pleasing reflection in the 
royal bosom that one day the Princess Victoria would 
wear his Crown. Her uncle, Prince Leopold, his son-in- 
law, the King detested From Prince Leopold to his 
sister the Duchess of Kent, the feeling of dislike 
extended, and in a certaiu measure to his niece, the 
Princess, her daughter. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 17 

In 1830, the year of bis death, the King was openly 
expressing his displeasure that France and Eussia should 
have offered to Prince Leopold the throne of Greece, a 
measure which he protested against. 

The cause of his dislike to the widower of his daugh- 
ter had been in a large degree that Prince Leopold was 
the son-in-law of his hated wife Caroline of Brunswick, 
as well as his own ; and as the Princess Oiiarlotte had 
loved her mother fondly and faitlifully, the King liad 
feared that, from the love the Prince had for his wife, 
he might give aid or countenance to her mother while he 
(the King) was endeavoring to divorce her. 

However, while she was with him the Princess Yicloria 
inspired the old King with pleasurable feelings. Her 
fresli youg spirits and youthful presence were delights 
to him that, when withdrawn, used to inspire the threat 
of taking her out of her mother's control, so that he 
might have have her more constantly near him, 



OHAPTFE III. 

PECULIARITIES OF aEOHaE IV.— HIS MANAGEMENT OF 
HIS DAUGHTER. — THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES. 
—THE DUCHESS KEEPS THE YOUNG PRINCESS FROM 
HIS COURT.— THE ROYAL MOTHER FEARS THE REMOVAL 
OF THE PRINCESS FROM HER KEEPING. 

The well-known character of George lY. from youth 
to age offered serious cause of alarm to the Duchess 
of Kent, lest he should carry out his threat of taking" 
the Princess Victoria into his own care. 

When he was past middle age, and had made his rec- 
ord, Burke described him as "a man without any sense 
of duty as a prince, without any regard to the diguity of 
his crown, and Avithout any love to his people; dissolute, 
false, venal, destitute of any positive good qualities 
whatever excex)t a pleasant temi)er and the manners of 
a gentleman. " 

But, says another, "in company with elegant and 
praisworthy tastes were found others of a low and vulgar 
description. He took delight in * rowdy' escapades and 
riotous jests, and he often engaged in scuifles and 
broils, being prudent enough, however,to retain annmber 
of ^bruisers' to attend him in case of beingoverpowered. " 

These and the following are incidents of his yontli. 
"No sooner had King George III gone to bed, than lie 
jind his brother broke out of the palace in search of 
riotous adventures. One of these outrageons scenes may 
be taken as a specimen of the rest. One night, with his 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 19 

ch-ief favorite and the worthy Duke of Oumberland, he 
set off for Blackheath to sup with Lord Chesterfield, 
where the wliole company presently got so drunk tbat 
the Prince was obliged to lie down." A large dog was 
let loose, and "a man of uncommon strength engaged in 
a fight with the animal, attemi)ting to tear out his tongue. 
The enraged dog broke from the holdui)on him, flew at 
another of tbc partj^, tore his arm, then mangled a foot- 
man, on which the whole party assailed him en masse. 
He had just seized the coat of the Prince when he was 
felled to the ground." The king, on hearing of this 
transaction, was so affected, "that he fell ill and told the 
Duke of Gloucester that he had not slept for ten 
nights." 

The Prince of Wales was twenty-three years of age at 
the time of his marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert, a beautiful 
woman of twenty-eight. This marriage Avas solemnized 
December 21st, 1785, the Eev. Mr. Burt officiating; and 
it was in a certain way recognized by many members of 
the royal family ui) to the day of the bridegroom's death, 
and after it by his brother William lY., who then re- 
ceived Mrs. Fitzherbert most cordially, and *' introduced 
her to his family as one of themselves." 

Nearly ten years later, April 8th, 1795, the Prince of 
AVales was again married, by the Archbishox) of Canter- 
bury to the Princess Caroline of Brunswick, his cousin. 
The flame of his affection for Mrs. Fitzherbert burned 
fitfully. For the Princess, his wife, he had no love at all ; 
and being in the habit of transferring his allegiance 
from one lady to another at will, Lady Jersey was at the 
time of his second marriage the favorite of his heart, "at 
whom he was peri^etually looking during the marriage 
ceremony." 

That condition of the princely affections augured ill 
for the happiness of the royal bride, and the Princess at 
once perceived the situation, as she told a friend: "The 



20 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

first moment I saw mj future husband and Lady Jersey 
together, I knew how it all was, and I said to myself, *0h 
very well, I took my partie '" As Lady Jersey was made 
the principal lady-in-waiting to the Princess, and took 
frequent occasion to be rude to her, harmony did not set 
in with the bridal. 

About the time of the birth of the Princess Charlotte, 
the King wrote the Prince of Wales: "You removed the 
Princess twice in the week immediately i3 receding the 
day of her delivery from the place of my residence, in 
expectation (as you voluntarily declare) of her labour; 
and both times, upon your return, you industriously con- 
ceal from the knowledge of me and the Queen every cir- 
cumstance relating to this important aftair; and you at 
last, without giving notice to me or to the Queen, precipi- 
tately hurried the Princess from Hampton Court in a 
condition not to be named. After having thus, in the 
execution of your own determined measures, exposed 
both the Princess and her child to the greatest of perils^ 
you plead surprise and tenderness for the Princess iOs 
the only motives that occasioned these repeated indigni- 
ties to me and to the Queen, your mother. * * * * 
I shall for the present leave to the Princess the care of 
my grand-daughter, until a proper time calls upon me to 
consider hc'^ education." 

The Princess was born January 7th, 179G, and on Ai^ril 
30th, less than four months subsequently, the Prince of 
Wales wrote to his wife: "As Lord Cholmondeley in- 
forms me that you wish I would define, in writing, the 
terms upon which we are to live, I shall endeavor to 
explain myself on that head with as much clearness and 
with as much propriety as the nature of the subject will 
admit. Our inclinations are not in our i)ower, nor 
should either of us be held answerable to the other 
because nature has not made us suitable to each other* 
Tranquillity and comfortable society is, however, in our 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEElJ-. 21 

power; let our iufcercoiirse therefore be restricted to that, 
and T will distinctly subscribe to the condition which 
you require. " 

The king labored to effect a reconciliation between 
the Prince and Princess of Wales, to which the latter 
was well inclined, only stipulating, however, that the 
cause of their mutual disagreement. Lady Jersey, sidiould 
be removed from her household. This was done later, 
but the reconciliation never took x>lace, the breach 
between the dissevered j)air growing constantly wider. 

The king openly espoused the cause of the Princess of 
Wales. She was his niece as well as his daughter-in- 
law, for whom he had a warm affection. The people took 
uj) her cause too, and began to cheer her when she ap- 
l^eared abroad. The Prince of Wales separated their 
daughter from her mother, the young Princess being de- 
tained at Carlton House so that she might be more par- 
ticularly under his fatherly ca.re(?), with Lady Elgin and 
Miss Hayman ("dear Hamy") in charge of her. 

In 1798, when the Princess Charlotte was two years 
old, her father had returned to live with his first wife, 
Mrs. Fitzherbert; and he continued that relation until 
his royal affections became entangled by the charms of 
Lady Hertford. 

The mixed matrimonial commerce of the Prince had 
a confounding effect on portions of the i)eople. An 
agreeable gentleman of amiable disposition conceived 
the idea of celebrating the birthday of the Princess 
Charlotte by a f^te in honor of the occasion. He invited 
Mrs. Fitzherbert as the principal guest, introduced her 
as the "Begentess," gave her prominence above every 
lady of rank present, toasted her as the "Princess of 
Wales," and was eloquent on the subject of the Princess 
Charlotte, whom he supposed was her daughter, and to 
Avhom he referred as " the lovely fruit of her union 
with the Prince.'' 



22 FIB'TY YEARS A QUEEN^. 

The Prince Eegent's great object iu life came to be 
the obtaiuiug of a divorce from Caroline of Brunswick - 
tliat and intrigues to extract money from the nation to 
enable him to pay his debts and to enter upon further 
courses of extravagance. Intrigues to keep his wife 
separated from her daughter, and in all possible ways to 
injure and humiliate her, and intrigues to overreach his 
f.ither, mother, and friends occupied his time and mind. 

Some one has ably said that "he loved closets within 
cabinets, cui^boards within closets; and he would have 
secret advisers besides his ostensible ones, and still more 
invisible ones behind his secret advisers, to none of 
which he would be faithful." 

It was a sharp thorn in the flesh of the Prince that his 
daughter had a fond and a fearless affection for her mother 
which she at all times manifested in the most positive 
way. From babyhood she was devoted to her; and 
every opi)ortunity that offered to be with her she 
availed herself of and showed her enjoyment in; and as 
she grew older she espoused her cause chivalrously. 

Sir Gilbert Elliott mentions an occasion of seeing the 
Princess and her daughter together while the child was 
very young. "The Princess Charlotte was in the room 
till dinner, aiul is really one of the finest and pleasantest 
children I ever saw. The Princess of Wales romped 
with her about the cari:)et on her knees." 

When the Princess was ten years old she was asked to 
a ball at one of the seats of royalty, and was told that 
she might bring any friend she wished with her, ui)on 
which she at once said that she would bring her mother. 

The Princess Charlotte was in her fifteenth year when 
her father, the Prince of Wales, was made Eegent, dur- 
ing one of the insane intervals of George III. 

This event he celebrated by a fete of exceeding mag- 
nificence, of which the Princess wrote : "My dear Hamy " 
(Miss Haymau), "But a few lines, as I will write you a 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 23 

longer one soon again, only to tell you that the Prince 
Regent gives a magnificent ball on the 5th of June [1811]. 
I have not been invited, nor do I know if I shall be or 
not. If I should not, it will make a great noise in the 
world, as the friends I have seen have repeated over 
and over again it is my duty to go there; it is proper 
that I should. Really I do think it will be very hard if 
I am not asked." 

The Princess was not asked, however. It was rather a 
perplexing period to the royal giver of the fete. The 
King, his father, was lying, so it was supposed, at death's 
door, a circumstance that imx^arted to the whole proceed- 
ing an awkward air; and the Queen, his mother, in the 
situation refused to be present. While the Prince Regent 
could have borne with unruffled serenity his mother's 
absence and that of the princesses, his sisters, in the ab- 
sence of her majesty would also be missing the radiance 
of the superb crown jewels, which if present she would 
have worn, and that consideration was a vexing one. 
Another care ux)on his mind was the embarrassing one 
of his daughter and his wives. What disposition was 
he to make of them ? 

His daughter he did not invite to the fete, nor the 
Princess of Wales, her mother; and the question of Mrs. 
Fitzherbert was a greatly perplexing one. To accommo- 
date circumstances to the needs of the case, the arrange- 
meufc of guests with regard to rank at the Prince's 
table had been put aside when she was present. But 
on this occasion a different arrangement had to be made, 
and as slie was invited it became necessary for her to 
enquire of the Prince where she should sit. "You know, 
madam," he answered," you have no place.'' "None, sir," 
said she, "but such as you choose to give me." 

Disagreeable references used to be made to his plural- 
ity of wives by some of the i)eople in his hearing. Ira- 
pertinent persons would call out to him that he had two 



24 MFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

wives sitting at home while lie deported liis royal self 
abroad. While he was riding with the Emperor of Russia 
through a London street, a man thrust his head into the 
carriage window and inquisitively asked the Prince 
Regent, "Where is your wife ?" 

In addition to all tliis he had a new complication in 
his domestic affairs. Lady Hertford and her son Lord 
Yarmouth (who used to be called "Red Herrings") had 
gained ascendency over him, which induced him to dis- 
1)1 ace Mrs. Fitzherbert in favor of Lady Hertford. 

The king was still very ill. Grave questions were 
before his ministers and the people of England ; but the 
Prince Regent still persisted in the endeavor to get rid 
of his wife, the Princess of Wales, and that he made the 
effort of his life. 

The Duke of Wellington was achieving victories, to 
which a reference was made in the presence of the Re- 
gent, when that gentleman, exasperated at such triviali- 
ties, burst forth, "D n the North, and d n the 

South, and d^ n Wellington; the question is, how am 

I to be rid of tliis d d Princess of Wales ?'- 

The Princess Charlotte, now seventeen, espoused 
her mother's cause with the utmost fervor. 

Previous to this time, while present at a banquet at 
Carlton House, the conduct of the Regent while at table 
caused the Princess to rise from it in tears, and to retire 
from the room, which gave rise to Byron's poem begin- 
ning: 

*• Weep, daughter of a royal line, 
A sire's disgrace, a realm's decay." 

Upon occasion, however, he used to pose as a model 
father. At such a time he was telling a gathering of 
l^eoiile that "hehad made it his care to instil into his 
daughter's mind and heart the knowledge and love of 
the true principles of the British Constitution; and he 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN, 25 

had pointed out to lier young understanding', as a model 
for study, the i)olitical conduct of Mr. Fox, who asserted 
and maintaiue d tlie firm and just principles ui)oii wliicU 
the goverument ought to be administered for the true 
and solid dignity of the crown, aud tlie real security, 
freedom, and happiness of tlie people; and lie believed 
the Princess would fulfill the duties she might be called 
upon to discharge when his bones were laid in the 
grave." 

At this period, while the Prince Regent was uttering 
such sentiments abroad, in his domestic realms a fierce 
strife was being waged, in which wife and daughter had 
united against him and his mother, the Queen, who from 
certain measures of policy abetted the Regent. 

In an encounter with his daughter he asked: "Don't 
you know that my mother is the Queen of England;" to 
which she retorted, "And you seem to forget that my 
mother is the Princess of Wales." 

The Prince Regent, with his Prime Minister to keep 
bim in countenance, visited his daughter and made awful 
revelations to her with regard to her mother's indiscre- 
tions, and indulged in threats of terrible consequences 
should she persist in visiting her, a step that did not 
shake her loyalty at all; and against all entreaty to the 
contrarj^, she persisted in secluding herself during the 
inquiry which had been set on foot with regard to the 
Princess of Wales, saying that her going abroad or show- 
ing herself to the people was "unbecoming while her 
mother lay under such accusations." 

His wife was acquitted of the charges against her, 
much to the disgust of the Regent, who vented his dis- 
appointment where he could. The Lord Chancellor evi- 
dently came in for his share of the unpleasantness, as he 
said: "I am too low and ill to mix with the world, aud I 
therefore absented myself yesterday, and shall do so to- 
day. The Prince has been treating me with such un- 



26 m^TY YEARS A quee:s'. 

kindness, because I won^t do as to liis wife and daughter 
as he wishes— in a way— that one more interview such 
as I liave had, if it occurs, will save me the trouble of 
appointing- to the secretaryship, or anything else where 
the officer goes out of office with the Chancellor." 

The *'first gentleman of Europe'' confined his daughter 
to her own rooms, and allowed but a few of his chosen 
friends to have access to her. A dramatic tableau was 
witnessed one day in the vicinity of Hyde Park. The 
Princess and the mother met, each driving in different 
directions, when they embraced from the respective 
windows of their carriages and talked together for a 
while. 

On her eighteenth birthday— the day of her coming of 
age— the heiress to the throne of England was left alone. 
No notice whatever was taken of that important event, 
her royal father being at that time completely engrossed 
with i)lans for her marriage with some prince who would 
obligingly make such a union advantageous to him, the 
Regent. 

The Prince of Orange was selected as the favored 
suitor. The Princess of Wales had been ordered to leave 
Kensington Palace, because her husband might ])ossibly 
desire to use it; and he took pains to put all possible 
impediments in her way of finding another residence. 
The Dutch Ambassador was ordered not to go near her, 
although the Prince of Orange was to marry her 
daughter; and the allied sovereigns, then in London, 
were hindered from taking any notice whatever of her. 

At a fete at which much royalty had assembled, the 
Prince Eegent and his prospective son-in-law, the Prince 
of Orange, with other royal personages, became very 
drunk. 

Two drawing-rooms were announced, from which the 
Princess of Wales was excluded. At that time her 
husband made it his care to have her excluded from 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 27 

participatiug in occurreijces going forward; bnt 
the people, observing the slight, the more earnestly es- 
l^onsed her cause, cordially offering to pull down Carlton 
House — the Prince's residence — at her bidding. 

The Princess Charlotte, though of age, was also ex- 
cluded from many of the festivities of the period; and 
while she made few manifestations of her feeling on the 
score of self, she made spirited remonstrances against 
the exclusion of her mother. Abroad the peoi)le followed 
her with the warmest demonstrations of loyalty and 
love, and they used to cry to her as she passed them, 
"God bless you ! Don't desert your mother !" 

Her stipulation with her suitor, the Prince of Orange, 
that both her parents should have access to their home, 
was rudely refused, he wishing to exclude her mother. 
She thereupon dismissed him, happily indeed, as a part 
of his amiable behavior included " coming to her when 
he had taken too much wine,"and was, on occasions when 
he had come from races on the top of a stage-coach, 
"drunk and riotous. " 

At this time, too, she had for the first time seen Prince 
Leopold, who had come to London in the train of the 
allied sovereigns. He was then twenty-two, and of fine 
presence, and he seems to have at once attracted her and 
possessed her fancy. 

The Prince Regent's treatment of his daughter at this 
period was simpl^^ outrageous. Every intimidation pos- 
sible to employ he used to bend her to his wishes, in 
compelling her to accept the Prince of Orange for her 
husband. A command to attend the Prince Eegent at 
Carlton House threw her into an agony of fear, which 
made her so ill as to gain her a respite until the morrow, 
when she was plainly told that she must comply. 

It was made known to her that she was to be kept 
in durance there, and she refused to go, whereupon the 
Regent visited her house and demanded to see her. An 



28 I?1FTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

agitating scene followed; the Princess hurriedly told an 
attendant that she was to be "shut ux), and was to see 
no one hut her father's friends, and that if she did not go 
at once the Prince would come himself," when, falling 
upon her knees, she exchiimed jjassionately, "God Al- 
mighty ! grant me patience." 

The Princess retired to her own room and remained 
there in a half distracted state until aroused by a violent 
knocking at her door. It was the Bishop of Salisbury, 
but the Princess, believing it to be her father come to 
seize and carry her off a captive to his own house, fled 
in terror from her room by another door. 

Upon finding the Princess gone consternation settled 
upon the household. Whither she had gone no one 
knew, until it was ascertained that a flying figure had 
accosted a cab-driver and offered him a guinea to drive 
her to Oonnaught Place, the residence of the Princess of 
Wales; then it was apparent that the terrified Princess 
had fled for protection to her mother. Messengers 
speedily followed, and she was at length induced to re- 
turn to the house of her father, where for a while she 
was held in restraint; and she was obliged to sell some 
of her jewels to procure needful means for her exi^euses. 

While the Regent totally disregarded his daughter's 
feelings, he felt it prudent to heed the public opinion 
that plainly condemned his course of action towards her. 
For this reason the marriage with the Prince of Orange 
was abandoned, and that with Prince Leopold concluded, 
of which the Princess said, almost at the moment of her 
death, "that she was still the happiest wife in Eng- 
land." 

From her letter to Lady Charlotte Lindsay with re- 
gard to her mother it maj^ be gathered that her devotion 
to her was unabated, and it was written but a few days 
before her death. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 29 

"The only person now remaining with my mother, and 
who I trust will take courage and continue with her, is 
Dr. Holland, and who I believe from everything I hear 
of him is a most resi^ectable and respected character. 
I have it not in my power at present to repay any service 
shown the Princess of Wales, but if 1 ever have, those 
who remain steadfast to her shall not be forgotten by me, 
though 1 fear sensible people like him never depend 
much on any promises from anyone, still less from a 
royal i^erson; so I refrain from making x^rofessions of 
gratitude, but I do not feel them the less towards all 
those who show her kindness. 

"I have not heard from my mother for a long time. If 
you can give me any intelligence of her I should be 
mucli obliged to you to do so. I am daily expecting to 
be confined, so you may imagine I am not very comfor- 
tal)le. If ever you think of me, dear, do not imagine 
that I am only a princess, but remember me, with Leo- 
IDold's kind compliments, as your sincere friend." 

After the death of his daughter, the life of the regent 
was not more exemi)lary than it had been theretofore, nor 
was it mended after he became king. 

With a full knowledge of the king's method of model- 
ling the life of a young girl, as exemplified by the means 
employed in the case of his own daughter, the Duchess 
of Kent lived in a state of apprehension whenever his 
majesty signified his intention of withdrawing the 
Princess Victoria from her care, in order that she might 
be under his own 



CHAPTER IV. 



LETTERS FROM THE DUCHESS OF COBURa TO THE 
DUCHESS OF KENT — THE BIRTH OF PRINCE ALBERT — 
MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS FEODORE, THE PRINCESS 
VICTORIA'S SISTER— THE LAST APPEARANCE OF THE 
PRINCESS AT THE COURT OF GEORGE IV.— DEATH OF 
KING GEORGE IV.— WILLIAM IV. BEGINS TO REIGN— THE 
DUCHESS OF KENT NAMED REGENT. 

Oa the birth of Princess Victoria, her graud-raother, 
the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, wrote to her daugliter, 
the Duchess of Kent, "I cannot express how happy I am 
to know you, dearest, dearest Vickel safe in your bed 
with a little one, and that all w^ent off so happily. May 
God's blessing rest^ on the little stranger and the be- 
loved mother. Again a Charlotte, destined perhaps to 
l)lay a great part one day, if a brother is not born to take 
it out of her hands. The English like Queens, and the 
niece of the ever-lamented, beloved Charlotte will be 
most dear to them." 

Three months and two days after the birth of the 
grand-daughter at Kensington Palace, the Ducliess was 
announcing to her daughter, the Duchess of Kent, the 
birth of a grandson at tbe summer residence of the reign- 
ing Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, " the Eosenau," 
which occurred on the 26th of August, 1819. 
30 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 31 

Mrs. Siebold, the same accoucheuse, had assisted at the 
birth of the Princess in the English Palace, and had 
hurried over to Germany, where now she assisted at the 
birth of the Prince, who in time was to be the husband 
of the little English girl. 

"Siebold," says the grand-mother, "had been called at 
three, and at six the little one gave his first cry in this 
world, and looked about like a little squirrel with a pair 
of large black eyes. 

"How i)retty the May Flower, (Princess Yictoria) will 
be when I see it in a year's time. Siebold cannot suf- 
ficiently describe what a dear love it is." 

On September 19th, the little Prince was baptized in the 
marble hall at the Eosenau, the Eev. Mr. Genzler offici- 
ating, the same clergyman who had married the Duke 
and Duchess of Kent, in the Palace at Coburg the pre- 
vious year. 

The Emperor of Austria,Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, 
the Duke of Gotha, Mensdorff, and the Dowager Duchess 
of Saxe-Ooburg were the young Prince's sponsors, and 
the names given him were, Francis Charles Agustus 
Albert Emmanuel. By the name of Albert alone he was 
usually called, and as " Prince Albert" he was the 
Prince Consort, the husband of Queen Victoria. 

A remarkable woman was this Dowager Duchess of 
Coburg, of whom Queen Yictoria said in after years: 
"She was a most remarkable woman, with a most power- 
ful, energetic, almost masculine mind, accompanied with 
great tenderness of heart, and extreme love for nature." 
Every member of her family appear to have loved her 
tenderly, and her letters to the Duchess of Kent (her 
fourth and youngest daughter) form an agreeable record 
of the close family confidence that existed between the 
Eoyal mother in Germany, and the daughter in England 
whom she kept informed with regard to the little Prince 



^ 



32 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

Albert, aud all other matters pertaiuiiig to their family 
abroad. 

" Albert is teething like his little cousin" (Princess 
Victoria) she writes, and, a gain, "Little Alberinchen, with 
his large blue eyes and dimi)led cheeks, is bewitching, 
forward and quick as a weasel, the little fellow is the 
])endant to the pretty cousin." 

When both children were in their fourth year, the 
Dowager Duchess begs her daughter the Duchess of 
Kent, " IsTot to tease her little i^uss with learning, as she 
was still so young." But at the same time the little 
German Prince was being solemnly placed under the care 
of a tutor, and for that purpose he was removed from the 
care of the nurse who had hitherto attended upon him. 

From the birth of Prince Albert, the grand-mamma at 
Ooburg, had earnestly desired his marriage witli his 
cousin Victoria when both should have arrived at a 
X)roper age. 

Possessing much influence with all of her famil}', the 
weight of that influence was brought to bear in favor of 
the alliance of the cousins, and she must have infornied 
Prince Albert of her wish in this respect, since he after- 
wards told the Queen, his wife, that their marriage had 
been the great desire of their grand-mother. 

The young x^rince and princess were in their twelfth 
year when the Dowager Duchess of Ooburg died, con- 
sequently the fruition of her hope in their union came 
long after she could realize the enjoyment of it. 

The year previous to her death when the Princess 
Victoria was eleven years old, she wrote to her daugh- 
ter, the Duchess of Kent. " My blessings and good 
wishes for the day which gave you the sweet may 
blossom! May God i^reserve and protect the valuable 
life of that lovely flower from all the dangers that will 
beset her mind and heart! The rays of the sun are 
scorching at the height to which she may one day^ attain. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEK. 33 

It is only by tlie blessiiijo;' of God tbnt all the fine quali- 
ties He lias put into tliat young soul, can be kei)t 
X^ure and untarnisbed. How well I can symi>atbize with 
tbe feelings of anxiety tbat must possess you when tliat 
time comes. God wlio has helped you through so man}" 
bitter hours of grief, will be your help still. Put your 
trust in him!" 

The Duchess of Kent had been following steadfastly 
the rule she had laid down for the government of her 
life — to follow serenely the path of her duties, and in all 
circumstances, to do the best that lay in her power. 

From time to time she went with her children to 
Olaremont, the residence of her brother. Prince Leopold, 
and while there, found always a safe harbor from the 
many vexations imposed upon her bj^ members of the 
royal family and by the King himself. The happiest 
days of the Queen's childhood, were spent here, as she 
herself testified, and the brother Leopold was ever to 
his sister (the mother of the Queen) a faithful friend and 
counselor. 

At Olaremont, the Duchess of Coburg enjoyed a visit 
with her favorite son Prince Leopold, and with her 
daughter and her children who were all there to receive 
her in the Autumn of 1825, when the Princess Victoria 
was in her sixth year. 

When in her ninth year, her sister the Princess Feo- 
dora was married to the Prince Hohenlohe Langenburg, 
the loss of that beloved and loving sister's presence be- 
ing, one keenly felt by the Princess Victoria. , Hence- 
forth the Baroness Lehzeu who had been chief governess 
to the Princess Feodora, became her own — assisted after- 
wards by many other instructors. 

The last public appearance of the Princess Victoria at 
the Court of his Majesty George IV. was on the occasion 
of a ball in honor of another small royalty, the little 
Queen of Portugal. This took place in the last year of 



34 FIFTY YFARS A QUEEN. 

his life, which was closed on t lie twenty-sixth (hiy of 
June, 1830, when he was succeeded by his brother, the 
Duke of Clarence, under the title of William the Fourth. 

Another tomb, that of her uncle Georg-e the Fourth, 
marked the advance of the Princess Victoria to the 
position of heir apparent when on the threshold of her 
twelfth year, and as King William was somewhat infirm 
of health, bodily and mentally, the e^^es of the English 
nation turned to this royal child as the coming Queen 
who should reign over it. 

"The English like Queens," the Duchess of Ooburg 
had said. The glorious reign of Elizabeth — glorious for 
the progress the nation had made during the forty-five 
years of her dominion over it — had been a grateful sub- 
ject of contemplation to the English i^eople for better 
than two centuries that i)assed since its close in 1603, 
and it is still one they love to dwell upon. 

The reign of Queen Anne — "Good Queen Anne" — 
which closed in 1714, was another bright page in Eng- 
land's histor3^ The twelve years of her sovereignty fill- 
ing the nation with a luster that had endured through 
the successive reigns distructive to its honor and pros- 
perity. 

The last of the Stuarts (as Elizabeth was the last of 
the regnant Tudors,) Queen Anne had succeeded a race 
of profligate kings of her line, who had impoverished 
and disgraced the country, as the Brnnswick Kings suc- 
ceeding her had done; therefore was a Queen the hope 
of the people, who looked for the rising star of their 
promise in the young gracious Princess who was being 
reared in their sight with a care and wisdom that au- 
gured the best for the future of Great Britain. 

On the assembly of the first Parlijiment under the new 
King William the Fourth, care was taken to settle the 
question of the regency should that King die during the 
minority of the Princess Victoria, and her mother the 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 35 

Ducliess of Kent was fitly lionored by being named Re- 
gent in such a contiugence. 

Her mother had written to tlie Duchess after the death 
of George lY., "God bless old England, where my be- 
loved children live, and where the sweet blossom of May, 
may one day reign! May God yet for many years keep 
the weight of a crown from her young liead, and let the 
intelligent, clever child, grow np to girlhood before this 
dangerous grandure devolves ui)on her!" 

Again, after the passage of the Eegency Bill, naming 
the Duchess of Kent to that office. The Duchess of Co- 
bnrg wrote. 

" I should have been sorry if the regency had been 
given into other hands than yours. It would not have 
been a just return for your constant devotion and care to 
your child, if this had not been done. May God give 
yon wisdom and strength to do your duty if called upon 
to undertake it. May God bless and protect our little 
darling! If I could but once see her again! The print 
you sent me of her is not like the dear picture I have. 
The quantity of curls hide the well-shaped head, and 
make it look too large for the lovely little figure." 

The desire of the Duchess of Ooburg to see her grand- 
daughter, the Princess Victoria " but once again," was 
not to be granted her, for on November 16th, 1831, the 
year following, the expression of it as above quoted, she 
passed out of this life without the opportunity of seeing 
again the child she loved so well. 

The great gratification of hailing her youngest and 
favorite son, Leopold, as King of the Belgians had how- 
ever, been hers. On the year of her death she had paid 
him a visit at Brussels, and had enjoyed the contempla- 
tion of his regal state there but a few months before the 
close of her life. 



CHAPTEE Y. 

KINO WILLIAM DESIRES THE PRESENCE OF THE 
PRINCESS AT HIS COURT. — SIR WALTER SCOTT PRESENT- 
ED BY KINa LEOPOLD OF BELGIUM TO PRINCESS VIC- 
TORIA. — THE PRINCESS LEARJsS HER PLACE IN THE 
SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN. — DEATH OF THE DOWAGER 
DUCHESS OF COBURG. — N. P. WILLIS'S DESCRIPTION OF 
QUEEN ADELAIDE AND THE PRINCESS. — WILIJAM IV. BE- 
COMES ANGRY AT A BIRTHDAY DINNER. — THE PRINCESS 
VICTORIA IN TEARS. 

When William TV. succeeded liis brother, tlie last of 
the Georges, as King of England, June 26th, 1830, 
he was in his sixty-fifth year, an age at which the habits 
of life are apt to be formed; and the new majesty's 
habits had hitherto been erratic upon occasions. 

For two years i^revious to the death of George IV., the 
Duke of Clarence, as Lord High Admiral, had been 
manifesting behavior iDcculiarly perT^lexiag to the king 
and to his minister tlie Duke of Wellington, on whom 
the dut}^ devolved of keeping the action of the Lord High 
Admiral within proper bounds. 

For many years the Duke of Clarence had indulged in 
eccentricities peculiar to his condition of mind — never 
especially harmful, though in many instances productive 
of awkward consequences. Profane and blundering 
from habit or necessity, he had a certain bluff kindliness 
of heart which won for him the name of "the good- 
natured sailor kingj" but the court which he formed 
36 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 37 

on coming to the crown did not encourage the 
Duchess of Kent to make the young Princess Yictoria 
familiar with it. 

One of the earliest experiences of his want of tact to- 
wards his Avife, the Princess Adelaide of Meiuingen, was 
her introduction by him on her wedding-day into her 
bridal chamber at Bushy Park, upon the wall of which 
hung a portrait of the beautiful and celebrated actress, 
Mrs. Jordan. The newly-made bride, though thoroughly 
familiar with the nature of the relationship that existed 
between her husband and Mrs. Jordan, had never seen 
lier face, and her enquiry as to who was the original of 
the i)icture covered the duke with confusion. He told 
her the truth, however, begging her pardon humbly for 
not haviug had the picture removed before her arrival, 
and offering to have it done without delay. 

With her characteristic sweetness of disposition, how- 
ever, she told him cordially that she knew what Mrs. 
Jordan had been to him in the past; that she was aware 
she was the mother of his children; and that she desired 
that the portrait might remain where it was. 

A disposition so complaisant opened wide the doors of 
their father's house to the youthful Fitzclarences, who, 
now that he was the king, made his court unconstrainedly 
their home— another reason why the Duchess of Kent 
decided to keej) her daughter as far removed from it as 
she could. 

On the death of her own children, the Duchess of 
Clarence wrote to the Duchess of Kent: "My children 
are dead, but your child is living, and she is mine too;" 
and a very motherly devotion she ever showed for the 
Princess Yictoria, who fondly returned her affection. 

King William was not more partial to the Duchess of 
Kent than his brother King George had been, and very 
early in his reign he began to complain that his niece? 



38 FIFTY "YEARS A QUEEN. 

the Princess Yictoria, was kept too mucli from his court, 
and to protest against that measure. 

On Queen Adelaide's birthday, the Princess Yictoria, 
with her mother and a retinue of ladies and gentlemen, 
attended the drawing-room given on the occasion for the 
first time. She was placed on the left hand of her aunt, 
the Queen, and as heir presumptive to the throne at- 
tracted universal attention. 

Up to this period the wise mother of the future queen 
had kept her daughter in ignorance of the "dangerous 
grandeur" that awaited her; and while she was the ob- 
served of all observers at the drawing-room, she herself, 
all unconscious of the attention she was attracting, was 
intent upon watching the splendors around her. Pre- 
vious to this Sir Walter Scott had written: "Dined with 
the Duchess of Kent. I was very kindly received by 
Prince Leopold, and x^i'esented to the little Princess 
Victoria — the heir apparent to the crown as things now 
stand. This little lady is educating with much care, and 
watched so closely that no busy maid has a moment to 
whisper, * you are heir of England.' " 

When twelve years old, and x^ending the bill which 
should make the Duchess of Kent Eegent should the 
Princess Yictoria come to the throne while under age, 
it was decided to inform her of her x)lace in the success- 
ion. To this end the Baroness Lehzen, the Princess's 
governess, put into a book of history the genealogical 
table of the royal famil}^, knowing it to be habitual for 
the royal child to look through that book when her in- 
structor, Mr. Davys, should have gone away after the 
lesson. When she did turn the leaves, tlie Princess 
was alone with her governess, and observing the folded 
paper, said, "I never saw tliat before." 

"It was not thought necessary that you should, 
princess," her governess answered. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 39 

The princess, examining it, said, "I see I am nearer 
the throne than I thoiiglit." 

"Then," says the Baroness Lehzen, "the princess, 
having lifted up the forefinger of her rigiit hand while 
she spoke, gave me the little hand, saying, 'I will be 
good ! I understand now why jou urged me so much to 
learn, even Latin. My cousins Augusta and Mary never 
did: but you told me Latin is the foundation of En- 
glish grammar, and of all the elegant expressions, and I 
learned it as you wished it, but I understand all better 
now;' and the Princess gave me her hand, rei)eating, 
*I will be good !' 

"I then said, 'But your aunt Adelaide is still young 
and may have children, and of course they would ascend 
the throne of their father William TV., and not you, 
princess.^ The princess answered: 'And if it was so, 
I should never feel disai3i)ointed for I know by the love 
Aunt Adelaide bears me, how fond she is of children." 

For some reason not explained the Princess Victoria 
was absent from the coronation of her uncle the King — 
an absence inviting much criticism and ascribed to 
various causes. Those who could exi)lain the true cause 
of the absence of the heir presumptive ui)on so import- 
ant an occasion were silent regarding it; and the King 
continued cavil at the Duchess of Kent's manner of con- 
ducting the Princess Victoria's education, and more 
especially that she was hindered from frequent visits to 
his court. 

That the Duchess had been made Eegentin the contin- 
gency of the princess coming to the throne while under 
age, was a proceeding looked upon with unfavorable 
eye by the King and his brothers. 

King William, while clamoring for the society of his 
niece, severly deprecated her appearance much in public, 
and he prohibited the salutes called forth by the sight 



40 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJS". 

of the royal standard under which she travelled with 
her mother and her attendants on short pleasure trips. 

That agreeable specimen of royalty, the Duke of Cum- 
berland, who was described by George lY. as one "who 
never saw a father well with, his son or a husband witli 
liis wife, or a lover with his mistress, or a friend with 
Ms friend that he did not try to make mischief between 
them," regarded his niece the Princess Victoria as a 
special impediment in his way in the succession — the 
bar which shut him out; for which reason lie hated her- 
self and her mother. It was the mother, the impertur- 
bable Duchess of Kent who invited the largest measure 
of hostility however — a frank hostility that met her on 
every hand, and which she encountered with an unruffled 
serenity that never betrayed trepidation. 

Until the Princess Victoria was twelve years old her 
instructors were principally G-ermans. Prom that time 
forward English masters rex^laced them. Her studies 
included Latin history, art, music, the modern languages, 
law, politics, and the Britisii Constitution among other 
subjects. In vocalism, the great Lablache was her 
master, and he had the rewards of i^roducing in his royal 
X)upil a very sweet singer, and a friend who continued 
one after she was queen and to the end of her master's 
life. 

Social and outdoor recreations and amusements were 
not lost sight of in other studies of the princess. She 
excelled in dancing, walking, riding, and in archery; and 
with her mother and governess, the Baroness Lehzen, 
she made visits to various interesting seaside resorts, 
and to houses of noble families in Wales and England. 

In l^ovember, 1831, the dear grandmother in German^^ 
the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, died, to the great 
sorrow of "her beloved children in old England," and 
elsewhere. "The sweet blossom of May" — the Princess 
Victoria, in her thirteenth year, mourned her sincerely, 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 41 

and sympatbised her mother's profound grief at the loss 
of her parent so dearly loved. 

TLie oaths of tlie "sailor king," and acts inspired by a 
mental state but little removed from insanity decided the 
Duchess of Kent to continue to lieep the j^oung hope of 
England retired from his presence and court. 

Mr. i:^. P. Willis says about this period, "At the Ascot 
Eaces, in one of the intervals, I walked under the king's 
stand, and saw her Majesty the Queen and the young 
Princess Victoria, very distinctly. They were leaning 
over a railing listening to a ballad singer, and seeming 
as much interested and amused as any simple country- 
folk could be. The queen is undoubtedly the plainest 
woman in her dominions, but the princess is much better 
looking than any picture of her in the shops, and for 
the heir to such a crown as that of England, quite 
unnecessaril}^ pretty and interesting." 

Good Queen Adelaide, plain though she may have 
been, had a loving, generous heart, devoted steadfastly 
to her royal sister-in-law, the Duchess of Kent, and to 
the young Princess Victoria, for whom she had an 
affection truly motherly. Never did the queen fail in 
any good office that she could render to either; and so 
far as her power could be exercised, she made her 
court agreeable to them, and her husband the king, 
tolerant. 

The thirteenth birthday of the Princess Victoria was 
celebrated with royal honors. The king and queen gave 
a grand ball in her honor, and the king treated her Avith 
the utmost affection, loudly expressing his gratification 
and pride at the sweet dignity of her manner. 

The Princess's appearance at drawing-rooms and upon 
other state occasions continued to be enthusiastically 
hailed. In 1835 when she had passed her sixteenth year 
and was, beyond any reasonable doubt, heir to the 
throne, she opened with Lord Exeter a ball which was 



42 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEI^. 

given in honor oflier mother and herself by the officers 
and the Mayor of Burghley. On the last birthday which 
William lY. was to celebrate on earth, the Duchess of 
Kent and the Princess Victoria were invited to be pres- 
ent at Windsor. A dinner of state was included in the 
programme of celebration, at which the King had the 
Duchess of Kent honored by a place on his left hand, 
the Princess being seated on the opposite side. 

All went well until toasting began, when tlie good- 
natured Queen proposed "The King's liealth and long 
life to him. " In reply to the compliment, the guerulous 
old King said, " lie hoped in God that he might live nine 
months longer, when the Princess Victoria would be of 
age, and he could leave the crown to her, not under the 
authority of a Eegent who was sitting by him." Warm- 
ing to his subject, he continued: "I have particularly to 
complain of the manner in which that young lady has 
been kept from my court. She has been repeatedly kept 
from my drawing-rooms, at which she ought always to 
have been present, but I am resolved that this shall not 
happen again. I would have her to know I am the King, 
and I am determined to make my authority respected, 
and for the future I shall insist and command that the 
Princess do upon all occasions appear at my court, as it 
is her duty to do." 

As the Princess Charlotte had ouce done at her 
father's table, when she was heir to the Crown — burst 
into tears because of his rudeness to his guests, so now 
did the Princess Victoria, because of the insult offered her 
mother, in a similar situation, by the irresi)ousible 
monarch, her uncle. Queeu Adelaide's distress was but 
little less than that of the Princess Victoria, while among 
all the guests at the royal feast, the Duchess of Kent 
alone maintained an unruffled demeanor. I^ot a line in 
the tranquil gracious face was moved by the petulance 
of the poor old man, who, too broken to remember his 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 43 

kingly dignity, had in his ebullient weakness permitted 
himself to insult a guest at his own dinner-table. 

Prince Albert and his brother Prince Ernest were 
1) resent at this dinner. It was while they were making 
their first visit to England, at which time Prince Albert 
and the Princess Victoria first made acquaintance with 
each other. 



CHAPTER YI. 



INTERESTING- EAELY ASSOCIATIONS OF THE PRINCESS 
VICTORIA AND PRINCE ALBERT— INCIDENTS OF PRINCE 
ALBERT'S YOUTH AND CHILDHOOD— THE PRINCESS VIC- 
TORIA'S FIRST MEETING WITH PRINCE ALBERT— SHE IS 
NOT ANXIOUS TO MARRY HIM. 

" The pendant to tlie pretty cousin'' had been growing 
in beauty and in grace in Germany, as she was doing in 
England. Extreme care was taken to develop in the 
young Prince Albert his mental, moral, and physical 
qualifications at their best; and in his case the unfolding 
life carefully directed was found responsive for good, as 
had been tbatofthe little Princess Victoria from her 
earliest childhood. 

In the close ties of a loyal family love, those two 
young lives were bound together, and each year they 
were drawn closer. While they were each progressing 
in the directions deemed advisable, there was constantly 
ripening the element of love that in its future perfect 
state should make one of them the pendant of the other. 
A love so strong and true was this to be, that its dis- 
rux)tion in after years forced, as nearly as the living can 
do, the barrier of tlie tomb that shrouds the dead. 

The grandmother in Germany and the uncle in Eng- 
land were strong links in the chain of affection between 

those royal children in different countries. Both of 
44 



FIFTY TEARS A QUEEN, 45 

these illustrious personages were endowed with a power 
to wield an immense influence where their affections were 
enlisted, and that influence was employed for conscien- 
tious ends and high family aims. 

In every line of the Dowager Duchess of Coburg's 
letters to the Duchess of Kent, her daughter, such senti- 
ments are perceptable; and in every act of Prince Leo- 
l^old, done in aid of the Duchess of Kent, his sister, and 
of his niece, the Princess Victoria, is perceptible a wise 
discretion underlying his steadfast love for them. 

In 1832, the year after Prince Leopold was made King 
of the Belgians, he married for his second wife, the 
Princess Louise of Orleans, a daughter of King Louis 
Philippe of France. His daughter by that marriage 
was named Charlotte, after the Princess Charlotte of 
Wales, his first wife. She was in after years the un- 
happy Empress of Mexico, who, as " poor Carlotta," will 
long be remembered as one of the pathetic figures in 
history consecrated by a supreme sorrow. 

In his babyhood, Prince Albert's mother wrote of the 
son whom she loved best; " Albert is snperb — remark- 
ably beautiful, with large blue eyes, a delicate mouth, a 
fine nose, and dimpled cheeks. He is lively and always 
gay." 

Prince Ernest, afterwards Duke of Coburg, the elder 
and only brother of Prince Albert, was scarcely five 
years old, and Albert not quite four years when their 
education under a tutor regularly began in 1823. 

If a strict teacher, the children had a loving one, in 
Mr. Florschutz to whose care they had been committed. 
This gentleman used to dex)reciate the partiality be- 
trayed by the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld for her 
youngest son (Prince Albert,) which he considered in- 
judicious, and the " interruptions occasioned by their 
frequent changes of residence, and general mode of life," 
hurtful to the progress of their studies. 



46 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

The motlier of the young Princes of Saxe-Ooburg was 
Princess Louise, of Saxe-G-otha-Altenburg, a beautiful 
impulsive woman, without the tact which malies domes- 
tic life a success. In 1824, a separation between 
husband and wife took i^lace. Tlie Duchess left Ooburg 
and her children, whom she did not agaiu see before her 
death in 1831; but although Prince Albert was a child of 
five years when this adoring mother faded from his life, 
he appears never to have forgotten her or ceased to love 
her memory. One of his first presents to the Queen was 
a little pin which he had received from his mother when 
a child, and which he liad carefully treasured, and after 
her, he named his daughter, the Princess Louise, (Mar- 
chioness of Lome,) whom she is said to resemble in 
features. 

Th e bereavement of th e two princes, in th e 1 oss of th eir 
mother, was largely repaired in the constant love of two 
devoted grand-mothers who assiduously watched over 
them— the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, their father's 
mother, and the Duchess of Gotha, their mother's step- 
mother, who dearly loved the children and their mother, 
and were potent factors for happiness in the early years 
of those children's lives. 

At the age of six, Prince Albert writes: 

'* When I got up this morning I was very happy; I washed 
myself and then was dressed, after which I played for a 
little while, then milk was brought, and afterwards dear 
papa came to fetch us to breakfast. After dinner we 
drove to the Eosenau. Here dear jiapa was shooting 
and we went a little way with the shooting party. 
Waldman was always wanting to run and chase the 
partridges, but we would not let him. Sometimes, how- 
ever, he ran away with the string, and we were forced to 
run fast after him to catch him again. We drove home, 
played, and then went upstairs to dinner, but that had 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 47 

long been over. We then visited our cousins, came up- 
stairs agaiu, aud diued, and tbeu wrote our journals. 
Now I am sleepy, I will pray and go to bed." 
" * * * * I got up well and bappy; afterwards I had a 
tight with my brother.* * * " 

The next day. " I had another fight with my brother; 
that was uot right." 

To his father, the little Prince wrote about the same 
time: " Dear Papa, — The day before yesterday we went 
to see the Hof-Marshal, aud yesterday the Colonel. 
Our finches have such fine houses to live in! Think of 
me very often, and bring me a doll that nods its head." 

Again writing to his father, in his eleventh year, 
Prince Albert said: " You will, long before this, have 
reached your journey's end, and will already have gone 
over to London. I wish I was with you to see all the 
sights that you will have seen. We heard of you yester- 
day from Thiel, the last place at which you passed the 
night; and we are very glad to hear that you are quite 
well. We are also quite well, dear papa, and though I 
should like to be with you, yet we like being here also, 
and are very happy at the Eosenau. The quiet of the 
place is very agreeable, for our time is well regulated 
and divided. The day before yesterday was the fete of 
the Gymnasium atCoburg, to which we were invited; so 
we drove into town in the morning, and heard a beauti- 
ful speech from Professor Troupheller. I am sure it 
would have pleased you." 

In that year (1831), the mother of the Princes, from 
whom they had been separated almost from their infancy, 
died at Sante Wendel, the retreat to which she had re- 
tired upon leaving her husband's palace at Coburg. 
Later in the same year, the beloved grandmother, the 
Dowager Duchess of Coburg also i)assed out of life, to 
the regret of those who devotedly loved her. 



48 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEiS^. 

In the following year (1832), Prince Albert, with his 
father and brother, was in Belgium on a visit to his 
nncle, the King of the Belgians. The visit to Brussels 
at that time was productive of good to the young Prince. 
Here his love of art was stimulated by the study of art 
treasnres, and the period i)assed with hisnncle Leopold 
had its effect in the future. 

In the early years of til e Prince, Mr. Florschutz was 
his oidy instructor in every study save music and draw- 
ing. From him the Prince received his tuition in re- 
ligion, in history, geography, philosoi)hy, and Latin, 
having, from his tenth year, masters besides in German 
and mathematics. 

When Prince Albert was fourteen years obi, he had 
himself made a programme of his studies as follows: 

" Monday: Translations from the French, repetition 
and preparation in history. Modern history. Ovid, 
English mathematics, French, exercises in Latin Com- 
position. 

Tuesday: Exercises in music; preparation in religion; 
religious instruction; Ovid, logic, geography, English 
exercises, written translation of Sallust. 

Wednesday: Beading, riding, exercises in German 
composition, music, Cicero, English exercises, mathe- 
matics. 

Friday: Exercises in music, exercises in memory, 
ancient history, exercises in Latin composition, natural 
history-, logic, French, Latin exercises in Sallust. 

Saturda}^: Correspondence, riding, exercises in Ger- 
man, music, English, French, drawing, geography, cor- 
respondence." 

The Prince greatly admired fine scenery, and the ex- 
cursions that afforded him oi:)])ortunit3^ for its enjoyment 
X)articularl 3^ pleased him. The beauties of the Bosenau 
—his birthplace— delighted him, and his great attach- 
ment to it grew with his years. Reinhardstrunn, another 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 49 

country-place belonging to the Duke of Coburg, was a 
favorite haunt of Prince Alberts. With his brother he 
used to make explorations through its hills and valleys; 
and in such pedestrian tours they collected together 
the si)ecimens of many kinds that formed finally tbe 
" Ernest and Albert Museum", which has become a 
noted one in Coburg. 

Deer-stalking in tbe i)icturesque wilds of Eeinhard- 
strunn was one of Prince Albert's great jdeasures, and 
that amusement was benefical largely to the mental and 
physical health of the industrious student devoted to his 
books. 

In 1885, the solemn ceremony of the Confirmation of 
the Princes took i)lace iu the chapel of the castle of 
Coburg. A very impressive ceremony this was made, 
the examination before it being conducted in the pres- 
ence of the Duke of Coburg, the Dowager Duchess of 
Gotha-Altenberg, the Princes Alexander and Ernest of 
Wurtemberg, Prince Leiningen, the half-brother of the 
Princess Victoria, the Princess Hohenlohe-Langenburg, 
her half-sister, Fedore, the household of the Duke of 
Coburg, the ministry, the members of the goverment of- 
fices, and deputations from other branches. 

After the Confirmation, the Princes, then respectively 
in their seventeenth and sixteenth year, made visits to 
Mecklenburg and to Berlin, where they joined their 
father, the Duke of Coburg, and with him they visited 
Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and Pesth. This travel was 
preparatory to their study in Brussels, ui^on which both 
entered on the year following, (183G). 

In later years, when the Prince was to become the 
husband of the Queen of England, and was leaving Ger- 
many for ever, he i)ledged himself to remain a "true 
German," and he was faithful to that promise. In 1830, 
Avriting from P-russels, he said with regard to German 
literature : 



50 ' FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

" Here, where one is only surronnded by foreii^n. 
literature, lives only in foreign literature, one learus to 
appreciate onr own at its true value. But it is i)ainful 
to see the mean idea which the French and Belgians, and 
even the English have of our German literature. It con- 
soles one, however, to find that this undervaluing pro- 
ceeds from an utter incapacit^^ to understand our Ger- 
man works. To give you a sliglit idea of this incapacity, 
I add to this letter a French translation of Goethe's 
'Faust,' which, in the most literal sense of the word, 
makes one's hair stand on end. Certainly, from such 
productions, foreigners cannot understand the profound 
genius of our literature, and they explain why so much 
in it appears to them weak and ridiculous." 

In the same year, (1836), Prince Albert went to Eng- 
land for the first time accompanied by his father and 
brother; and at that time saw first the Princess Victoria, 
in whom he had even then a very deep interest. Al- 
though a very handsome boy, and a manly one for his 
years, he Avas then but a boy of seventeen, and to the 
Princess, three months his senior, he undoubtedly ap- 
peared the callow youth he was — the true explanation of 
her resolve later expressed not to marry for some years 
to come. 

The Prince's first ai)pearance in public was at a levee, 
held by William lY., on the same evening the German 
royalties dined at court, and at night attended a "beauti- 
ful concert." Next day they were present at tlie draw- 
ing-room held at St. James Palace, in honor of the King's 
birthday, where nearly four thousand of Enghmd's 
beauty and chivalry offered congratulations to his 
majesty, who was never to see another birth-day. On tlie 
same evening the prince and his party were present at 
the State dinner, and witnessed the distressing scene 
already mentioned, wherein the Princess Victoria wept 
because of the Kiug'sr discourtesy to her mother. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEIT. 51 

It was tlie poor old King's last l)irtli-day, and was 
finished with a concert that lasted nntil one o'clock in tlie 
morning*, before whicli time perhaps most of the grand 
company present had forgotten, in recent i)leasures, the 
ill manners of their host. 

Evidentlj^ the Dnchess of Kent had not allowed the 
circumstance to trouble seriously her well-poise mind, 
as a few evenings afterwards, Prince Albert wrote to his 
step-mother: "Our aunt gave a brilliant ball at Kensing- 
ton Palace at which the gentlemen apx^earedin uniform, 
and the ladies in so-called fancy dresses. We remained 
till four o'clock. Duke William of Brunswick, the Prince 
of Orange and his two sons, and the Duke of Welling- 
ton, were the only guests that you will care to hear 
about. Yesterday we spent with the Duke of North- 
umberland at Siou, and now we are going to Claremont. 
Prom this account you will see how constantly engaged 
we are, and that we must make the most of our time to see 
at least some of the sights of London. Dear aunt is very 
kind to us, and does everything she can to please us, 
and our cousin (Princess Victoria) also is very amiable. 
We have not a great deal of room in our department, 
but are nevertheless very comfortably lodged." 

A bilious fever of some days duration, with which the 
l)rince was just attacked when he came to England, did 
not conspire to show him at his best to the Princess, 
who no doubt examined him witb critical eyes, aware as 
she was, of the desire that had been formed in the family 
for their future union. As she then saw him he was not 
probably all her fancy painted him, and she certainly 
was not greatly disposed towards the marriage with him, 
which three years afterwards she pressed for herself 
with ardent desire. 
/ On leaving England, the prince went to Paris with 
his brother, and after a short stay there, proceeded to 
Brussels, where for ten months they were industriously 



52 mVTY YEARS A QUEEN". 

engaged in study preparatory to their entrance into tlie 
University of Bonn iu 1837. 

In tlie fall of 1836, tlie Prince was writing from Brus- 
sels to his father, thanking him for an invitation to spend 
the coming holidays at the "dear home" in Coburg; but at 
the same time denying himself that pleasure, because, as 
he sagely said, " such an expedition would require four 
or five weeks, and our course of study would be quite 
disturbed b}^ such an interruption. We told dear uncle 
the puri^ort of your letters, and he said he woxild write to 
you on the subject." 

From many things it was evident that " dear uncle" 
(King Leopold) frequently had need to admonish his 
elder brother, the Duke of Coburg, for the purpose of 
imi^ressing upon him some discreet consideration which 
he had lost sight of, or perhaps never perceived at all. 

Just at this time the dear uncle had other projects in 
view for his favorite nephew. Prince Albert, than wast- 
ing precious time on holidays to be spent at Coburg. 



I 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE PRINCESS VICTORIA COMES OF AGE.— REJOICINQ 
THROUaHOUT THE KINaDOM.— DEATH OF WILLIAM IV.— 
VICTORIA WAKENED FROM A SOUND SLEEP TO BE IN- 
FORMED THAT SHE IS THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND.— HER 
MAJESTY HOLDS HER FIRST COURT AT KENSINGTON PAL- 
ACE.— THE YOUNG QUEEN RECEIVES THE HOMAGE OF HER 
SUBJECTS. 

On the morning of May 24th, 1837, the Princess Vic- 
toria was wakened from sleep by strains of music 
l)roclaimiug that her eighteenth birthday had dawned, 
and that the heiress to the crown of England had come 
of age ! 

Very different had been the birthday and coming of 
age of her young cousin, the Princess Charlotte, on a 
like anniversary, which she had ]3assed in loneliness and 
in sorrow induced by the troubles that compassed her. 

All Loudon was j)ouring out a greeting to the Princess 
Victoria when she opened her eyes that May morning, 
for music and joyous sounds were heard everywhere as 
she answered her mother's congratulations as affection- 
ately as they were offered. It was high holiday in 
England, where all were making merry in honor of the 
coming of age of the adored Princess and future Queen, 
upon whom and on her royal mother i^resents and con- 
gratulations poured in throughout the day. 

For the better celebration of the event the houses of 
Parliament adjourned; and so did the schools, in order 

53 



54 FIFTY YFARS A QUEEIT. 

tliat the cliildreii miglit add tlieir liuzza's to tliose of 
larger growth. 

The vast city of London, and other cities and towns of 
England, were illnminated, nnd a magnificent State Ball 
w^as given at Sfc. James's Palace, at which, for the first 
time in her life, the Princess Victoria took precedence of 
her mother. As neither the King or Queen were present, 
the young i)rincess was the chief royalty there. 

The event which the King had prayed for on the even- 
ing of his last birthday had come to pass. He had lived 
to see the princess come of age, and he could now "leave 
the royal authority in her hands, not in those of a Ee- 
gent." But then his Majesty showed exceeding reluct- 
ance to delegate that authority to the princess or to any 
one else. 

On the morning of this auspicious day the King sick- 
ened with ha^^-fever, and the Queen — most devoted of 
wives — remained by his side assiduously attentive to 
him. 

Congratulations from the cousin princes in Germany 
were not omitted, and since their visit to England in the 
year past, there was a general belief that a marriage 
between Prince Albert and the Princess Victoria w^as a 
coming event which was anxiousl}^ looked forward to. 

With regard to such a marriage, nothing had been set- 
tled, although it had long been the ardent desire of the 
Duchess, the princess's mother, and no less so of 
"Uncle Leopold," the King of the Belgians; but they 
wisely forebore urging ui)on the two most concerned, 
who were well aware of the wishes entertained on the 
subject, its premature consideration. 

Various were the projects in England for finding a 
husband for the heiress to the Crown that should not be 
the German Prince Albert, and meantime King William 
was gradually but surely drawing towards his end. This 
came before three o'clock in the morning of June 20th, 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 65 

1837, less than one month after the coming of age of the 
Princess, now Queen of Enghmd. 

While the last King of the Brunswick line was lying 
dead in Windsor Castle that summer morning, *'The 
English who liked Queens," were hastening to hail the 
Queen that was to reign over them in the person of the 
Princess Victoria, at that moment wrapped in slumber 
in her mother's chamber in Kensington Palace ! 

After the breath had left the royal body of William 
IV. the Archbishop of Oanterburj^, Dr. Howley, and the 
Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis of Oonyngham, hastened 
from his death-bed in Eoyal Windsor to inform the 
Princess Victoria at Kensington Palace that she was 
Queen. 

After two hours travel the distinguished messengers 
reached Kensington Palace at five o'clock in the morn- 
ing when every one was buried in sleep; and the bearers 
of the important tidings had hard work to awake any 
person who would listen to them. According to Miss 
Wynn's account, often quoted, the envoys " knocked, 
rang and thumped for a considerable time before they 
could rouse the i)orter at the gate; the^^ were again kept 
waiting in the court-yard, then turned into one of the 
lower rooms, where they seemed forgotten by every- 
body. They rang the bell, and desired that the attend- 
ant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform her 
Eoyal Highness that they requested an audience on 
business of importance After another delay, and an- 
other ringing to enquire the cause, the attendant was 
summoned, who stated that the Princess was in such a 
sweet sleep that she could not venture to disturb her. 
Then they said : " We are come on business of State to 
the Queen, and even her sleep must give way to that!" 

Without waiting to arrange a toilet, the young Queen 
came hastily into the room; " A shawl thrown over her 
night-dress, her hair falling loose on her shoulders, her 



66 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

feet iu slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected 
and diguilied." 

Without loss of time, Lord Melbourne was summoned, 
and a meeting of the Privy Council called for eleven 
o'clock. The Lord Chancellor administered the usual 
oaths to the Queen, and Her Majesty received the oaths 
of allegiance of the Cabinet Ministers and Privy Coun- 
cilors present. 

It was almost as a stranger that those high and mighty 
dignitaries met their young Queen, who had hitherto 
been kept in a retirement so close by her mother, that 
no one could tell what manner of person she was, or 
judge of the x)romise there might be in her. Most ex- 
cellent reason had that good mother for closely guarding 
her royal daughter from intercourse in the courts of her 
uncles, the two i^revious kings. Through the wise dis- 
cretion of the mother, her beloved daughter now came 
to the throne free from comidications to which an indis- 
criminate acquaintance, had she not been spared it, 
might have subjected her. 

"She was well brought up," Justin McCarthy says, 
" both as regards her intellect and lier character — her 
training was excellent. She was taught to be self-reli- 
ant, brave and systematical. Prudence and economy 
were inculcated on her as though she had been born to 
be poor. One is not generally inclined to attach much 
importance to what historians tell us of the education of 
contemporary princes and princesses, but it cannot be 
doubted that the Princess Victoria was trained for intel- 
ligence and for goodness." 

The character and intellect of the youthful Queen 
were certainly manifested in the manner of encountering 
tlie dignity and responsibilities of her sovereign station. 
Every inch a Queen in demeanor; her first words to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury were : " I beg your Grace to 
l)ray for me;" a testimony of the reverent feeling in that 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 67 

young heart; and her first queenly act was, the writing 
of a letter of condolence to her Aunt, Queen Adelaide, 
in which she expressed for her the tenderest spmpathy, 
begging her to remain at Windsor as long as slie should 
desire. 

"Her Majesty, the Queen," the young Queen ad- 
dressed her letter, u^^on wliich some one reminded her 
that the widow of William lY. was Queen Dowager. 
" That I am aware of," Queen Victoria replied, " but I 
will not be the first person to remind her of it. " 

With the same grave sweet dignity, the Queen re- 
ceived the officers of the various high departments of 
Church and State, accepting their vows of fealty. 

In the great saloon of Kensington Palace, in which she 
was christened, June 24th, 1819, when an infant, one 
month old, the Queen was holding her first Court on the 
twentieth of June, 1837, four days less than eighteen 
years from the first ceremonial to the present one, in 
which an imj^rovised throne had taken the place of the 
golden baptismal font used at the former. 

While the big bell of St. Paul's tolled for the dead 
Majesty at Windsor Castle alone, the new sovereign en- 
tered the room in Kensington Palace, where were as- 
sembled princes and peers, spiritual and temporal, clad 
in mourning-garb for the dead King. The Queen kissed 
her royal uncles, the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex, 
advancing some distance to the latter, who was infirm of 
health, and with a dignity all her own, she proceeded to 
accept the allegiance of her faithful subjects, to whom 
she delivered her first speech from the throne. 

According to their rank. Her Majesty's uncles were 
the first to swear allegiance to her. That vivacious 
chronicler, Greville, said: "As they knelt before her, 
swearing allegiance and kissing her hand, I saw her 
blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the contrast between 



58 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

their civil and natural relations; and this was the only 
sign of emotion which she evinced." 

By the death of William lY., his eldest surviving- 
brother, the Duke of Cumberland, became King of Han- 
over. The Hanoverian Kings of Eu gland were by lawful 
succession Kings of Hanover, but as that crown Avas 
limited strictly to the male succession, the Duke of 
Cumberland was now the sovereign of Hanover. Yery 
well pleased indeed were the English people that so un- 
l^opular a Prince as his Highness of Cumberland should 
go over to Hanover as its King. Where he went, so 
long as he did go, scarcely concerned them at all. They 
were only too pleased to have tlieir girl-Queen, to whom 
they were manifesting the warmest enthusiasm and loy- 
alty. 

According to Greville, after the emotion betrayed by 
the Queen upon seeing her uncles kneeling before her, 
she was i>erfectly comj)osed Avbile receiving the homage 
of her subjects, except, he says, that, " she seemed 
rather bewildered at the multitude of men who came to 
kiss her hand and to kneel to her — among them the 
Great Duke of Wellington. But neither for him nor 
for Lord Melbourne did she show the least alteration of 
manner. After her old uncles, to all persons she was 
the same— a gracious sovereign. 

An oath for the security of the Church of Scotland was 
exacted from Her Majesty. She put Lord Melburne in 
mind of the precedent which decreed that she should be 
proclaimed on the following morning at ten o'clock from 
a particular window of St. James's Palace, and that, for 
that purpose, an escort and conveyance must be in readi- 
ness for her. Then, leaving these cares in his Lordship's 
hands, the business of the first day of her regal state 
being over, she retired from the room. 



CHAPTER YIII. 



VICTORIA PROCLAIMED QUEEN AT ST. JAMES'S PALACE 
—DESCRIPTION OF THE QUEEN ON HER PROCLAMATION 
— PRINCE ALBERT'S LETTER TO THE QUEEN ON HER 
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE— HER MAJESTY'S HOUSE- 
HOLD—THE QUEEN'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN THE HOUSE 
OF LORDS— CHARLES SUMNER HEA.RS THE QUEEN'S FIRST 
SPEECH FROM THE THRONE -THE QUEEN CONFERS THE 
ORDER OF KNIGHTHOOD ON THE FIRST JEW, SIR MOSES 
MONTEFIORE — DISREALI IN THE FIRST PARLIAMENT 
PRESIDED OYER BY THE QUEEN. 

At teu o'clock ou the morning of June 21st, 1837, Queen 
Victoria was proclaimed from the window of the Presence 
Chamber of St. James's Palace, surrounded by a great 
retinue of lords and ladies. Her Majesty appeared 
dressed in black, as Miss Martineau said, "a young crea- 
ture who stood in simplest mourning, her sleek bands of 
brown hair as plain as her dress. The tears running 
down her cheeks as Lord Melbourne, standing by her 
side, presented her to the people as their sovereign." 

" God save the Queen," rang in her ears for the first 
time, and after a period employed in returning the greet- 
ing of her subjects, her Majesty retired, accompanied by 
her mother, to appear again at a Privy Council which 
was to be held at noon. 

59 



60 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJS^. 

At twelve o'clock the young Queen presided at this 
council, and at one o'clock slie returned to Kensington 
Palace witli lier mother, wliere she was to remain until 
after the funeral of William lY. 

Much was said of the Queen's deportment on the day 
of the proclamation. Greville wrote that she appeared 
to act with every sort of good taste and good feeling as 
well as good sense. She behaved, he says, Avith a 
decorum and propriet^^ far beyond her years, and was 
neither dazzled nor confounded with the grandeur and 
novelt}^ of her situation. 

Sir Eobert Peel expressed himself as amazed at her 
manner and behavior, at her api)arent deei^ sense of her 
situation, her modesty and firmness. " She ax)peared," 
he says, " to be awed, but not daunted." To the courage 
of the girl-queen, the Duke of Wellington, who had 
I)roved his own on many a battle-field, i>aid a glowing 
tribute; and many others besides had warm praise and 
admiration for the young girl come to a condition of such 
responsibility, and who had stood the test so well. 

The hearts of the peoi)le who saw her were won to her 
as she stood the central figure of august assemblages. 
The expressions of gratitude were deei) and fervent that 
a sovereign promising so well in manner and conduct 
had been given to rule the nation; and this gratitude 
was greater in i>roportion to the memory of the people 
that dwell upon former reigns, and recalling them, turn- 
ed to this dawning one with hope and thankfulness. 

In all the multitudes proud of and sympathetic towards 
the young Queen one heart certainly more than anj^ 
other rejoiced with her and beat high with pride for her 
— the mother triumi)hant in the regal state of her beloved 
daughter. 

Outside of the general throng hanging on her move- 
ments and heeding all that she said or did at this period, 
there was another sympathic personage attentive to 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 61 

every proceeding of the young Queen just entered upon 
her regnant state, in the person of the Prince over the 
water, who without loss of .time signified that he had her 
in his thoughts. A few days after she was proclaimed 
Queen, Prince Albert wrote to her from Bonn: "My 
dearest cousin, — I must write you a few lines to present 
to you m}^ sincerest felicitations on the great change 
which has taken place in your life. I^Tow you are Queen 
of til e mightiest land of Europe; in your hand lies th* 
happiness of millions. May Heaven assist you and 
strengtlien j^ou with its strength in that high and difii- 
ciilt task. I hoi>e that your reign may be long, hnppy, 
and glorious, and that your efforts may he rewarded by 
the thankfulness and love of your subjects. May I pray 
you to think likewise sometimes of 3'Our cousins in Bonn 
and to continue to them that kindness you favored them 
with till now? Be assured that our minds are always 
with you. I will not be indiscreet and abuse your time. 
Believe me always, j^our Majesty's most obedient and 
faithful servant, Albert." 

In the midst of the general rejoicings over the new 
reign, there was a tender and sorrowful heart at Windsor 
Castle mourning sincerely the dead king, who was yet 
lying there unburied— Queen Adelaide, the widow of 
William lY. From her closet in St. George's Chapel, 
the faithful wife heard the many eulogies pronounced 
over tlie remains of her royal husband, and loving him 
well, her heart echoed every one of them. 

Through her tears she witnessed the lowering of the 
casket containing all tiiat was earthly of King William 
into the royal vault, where this last King of the Bruns- 
wick line was to mingle his ashes in that sepulcher with 
the royalty gone before him; and. she then went her way, 
loyally grieving for the dead and gone sovereign, already 
forgotten by all but herself. 



62 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

The Duke of Cumberland, uow King Ernest of Hanover, 
took his leave of his niece the Queen at Kensington 
Palace after the funeral of the late king, and departed 
for his own kingdom. He had not been friendly — this 
Uncle Ernest — to his or^^han niece, when she was the 
Princess Victoria. He had indeed been hostile to her 
and her mother, nevertheless, upon this occasion she 
kissed him affectionately on bidding him " God speed " 
on his journey. 

Her Majesty's Household was formed, and the Queen 
and the Duchess, her mother, left Kensington for Buck- 
ingham Palace and its glories. A contrast to her modest 
mourning dress, in which she appears the day of her 
i:)roclamation, was the regal attire in which she is next 
seen on her w^ay to Westminster to oi)en Parliament. 

"At twenty minutes to tliree precisely, her Majesty, 
preceded by heralds, and attended by the great officers 
of State, entered the House of Lords — all the Peers and 
Peeresses, who had risen at the flourish of tbe trumi^ets, 
remained standing. Her Majesty was attired in a splen- 
did, white satin robe, with the ribbon of the Garter cross- 
ing her shoulder and a magnificent tiara of diamonds on 
her head, and wore a neckhice and a stomacher of large 
and costly brilliants. Having ascended the throne, the 
royal mantle of crimson velvet was i^laced on her 
Majesty^s shoulders by the Lords in waiting, and upon 
taking her seat, her Majesty a^^peared to be dee])ly 
moved at the novel and imi)ortant i)osition in which she ' 
was placed, the eyes of the assembled nobility, botli 
male and female, being riveted on her j)erson. Her 
emotion was plainly discernible in the heaviiigs of her 
bosom, and the brillianc}^ of her diamond stomacher, 
which sparkled out like the sun on the swell of the 
smooth ocean as the billows rise and fall, she had 
regained her self-possession when she came to read the 
speech, and her voice also, for it was heard all over the 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 63 

<,''retit cliamber, and lier deiueaiior was characterized by 
mucli grace and modest self-i)ossession." 

To tlie foregoing account from a London antliority 
Charles Sumner who was present at that time, wrote: 
" I was astonished and delighted. Her voice is sweet 
and finely modulated, and she pronounced every word 
distinctly, and with a just regard to its meaning. I think 
I never heard anything better read in my life than her 
speech, and I could not but respond to Lord Fitz- 
Williara's remark to me when the ceremon3'^ w^as over, 
*How beautifully she performs!'" 

William TV. on his accession to the throne, said to the 
Bishop of Ely: "My lord, I do not wish to interfere in 
any way with your vote in Parliament, except on the 
subject of the Jews. I trust I may depend on your al- 
ways voting against them!" On the question of Jewish 
preferment, her Majesty, Queen Victoria appeared to 
have different views, which she speedily manifested, for 
she conferred the dignity of Knighthood on Sir Moses 
Montefiore on the Lord Mayor's day following her com- 
ing to the crown, while visiting the city of London. Mr. 
Montefiore had been elected Sheriff of London a few days 
after her Majesty was proclaimed Queen, and he was the 
first Jew that had ever been chosen for that office. Her 
royal hand opened the door of preferment to the Jewish 
race, wdio remained grateful to her for that act, and one 
of whom, Benjamin Disraeli, rewarded her by the title 
of Empress of India, conferred mainly through Ms effort 
in after years. 

"This remarkable man," says that charming writer 
Justin McOarth}^ "entered the House of Commons as 
Conservative member from Maidstone in 1837. He was 
then about thirty-two years of age. He had previously 
made repeated and unsuccessful attempts to get a seat 
in Parliament. He began his political career as an ad- 
vanced liberal, and he described himself as one who 



64 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

desired to figlittlie battle of the people, and who was 
supported bj^ neither of tlie aristocratic parties." 

Coiitemporaneoiisl}' with the beginning of Queen Vic- 
toria's sovereignity was the career of Disraeli. He was 
a member of the first Parliament in the House of Com- 
mons before which she appeared on her accession to the 
throne. Tlirongh many x>eculiarities that for a while 
invited slighting or invidious treatment from his fellow- 
members his great ability, was manifest, nnd it conquered 
for him in time the place of leader in that body and in 
the English nation. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE QUEEN TAKES POSSESSION OF BUCKINGHAM PAL- 
ACE—HER MAJESTY'^ NEW THRONE — PRINCE ALBERT 
WRITES OF THE QUEEN -HOW THE DUKE OF WELLING- 
TON MANAGED GEORGE IV. — QUEEN VICTORIA'S MAN 
AGEMENT OF THE DUKE— PRINCE ALBERT SENDS THE 
QUEEN TOKENS FKOM ABROAD - GIFTS TREASURED BY 
THE QUEEN -THE QIEEN'S FIRST CHRISTMAS AT WIND- 
SOR CASTLE— TROUBLES IN VICTORIA'S EARLY REIGN— 
THE SOVEREIGN DISCHA^RGLS HER FATHERS DEBTS. 

Biickingliiim Palace, in addition to other changes made 
to accommodate the better, the new sovereign of England 
come to reside tliere, had a brand new throne of elegant 
design and workmanship set u\) in the throne-room, 
which was made especially for the girl-queen. 

One enthnsiastic writer had discovered her close re- 
semblance to George 111., which important facts was 
immediately set forth together with the declaration that 
she was " excessively like the Brunswicks, and not at all 
like till. Oobnrgs." Tiiis was judged to be an esi)ecial 
X)oint /n her favor, since as the writer said: "The 



memy^iy of George III. is not yet passed away, and the 
peo^/le are glad to see his calm, honest, and Englisii 
physiognomy renewed in his granddaughter. It might 
indeed have gratified the national love of the English 
people to perceive " the calm, honest, and English 
65 



66 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

physiognomy" reflected iu tiie young queen, but it is a 
<Xiiestion if even the national love for all things English 
could have accex)ted and admired manj^ features of the 
reign of that king and the results therefrom were they 
repeated in the reign of Victoria. 

Prince Leopold rejoiced greatly that his beloved niece 
had come to the throne, which he had once exi)ected to 
be filled by his own wife, the Princess Charlotte, her 
cousin; and he sympathized in the concern of his sister, 
her majesty's mother, regarding the marriage of her 
royal daughter. 

In writing to his father, Prince Albert says: "The 
death of the King of England has everywhere caused the 
greatest sensation. Erom what uncle Leopold, as well 
as aunt, writes us, the new reign has begun most suc- 
cessfully. Cousin Victoria is said to have shown aston- 
ishing self-possession. She undertakes a heavy responsi- 
bility, esi)ecially at the x)resent moment, when i)arties 
are so excited, and all rest their hopes on her. Poor 
aunt, (the Duchess of Kent) has again been violently 
attacked in the newspapers, but she has also found 
strenuous sui)i)orters." 

England and her young queen formed the principal 
topics of Prince Albert's letters at this time, and he ap- 
pears to be exceedingly well informed, as well as greatly 
interested in all that was transpiring on these subjects. 
" A few days ago," he writes, " I received a letter from 
aunt Kent, inclosing one from our cousin. She told me 
I was to communicate its contents to you " (his father); 
"So I sent it on with a translation of the English. The 
day before yesterday I. received a second and still kinder 
letter from my cousin, in which she thanks me for my 
good wishes on her birthday. You may easily imagine 
that both of these letters gave me great pleasure." 

When Victoria had been two months a Queen, she was 
entertaining at Windsor Castle the King and Queen of 



( 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 67 

tlie Belgians. This was the faithful uncle's first oppor- 
tunity witnessing the royal splendors to which his niece 
had attained, and the council then held with his sister, 
the Duchess of Kent, was not it may be supposed, to- 
wards the end of retarding the marriage of the Queen 
and the Prince their nephew, upon which they had long 
set their hearts. 

" Uncle Leopold," the Prince w^rote his father, " has 
written to me a great deal about England, and all that is 
going on there. United as all parties are in high i)raise 
of the young queen, the more do tliey seem to mauceuver 
and intrigue with and against each other. On every side 
there is nothing but a network of cabals and intrigues, 
and parties are arrayed against each other in the most 
inexplicable manner. Uncle Leopold advises us to 
make a journey to the south of Germany and Switzer- 
land, or even to the north of Italy." 

The astute uncle Leopold advised this measure for the 
puri)ose of diverting attention from the rumor of the 
coming marriage between Her Majesty and her cousin 
Prince Albert, Avhich was quite understood by the 
Prince, as he significantly writes in the same letter: 
" Sorry as I shall be to lose the opportunity of seeing 
our dear uncle again soon, I feel that his opinion is right, 
and I am sure that you will agree in thinking his reasons 
imperative and conclusive." 

Mr. Greville mentions that the Duke of Wellington 
ouce told him what was his habitual way of managing- 
George ly., when he was Prime Minister to that King, 
towards the close of his reign. " I maice it a rule never 
to interrupt him," said the Duke, and when "in this 
way he tries to get rid of a subject in tlie way of busi- 
ness whichhe does not like, I let him talk himself out, 
and then quietly put before him the matter in question, 
so that he cannot escape from it." 



68 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEIT. 

Kot SO adroitly did the great Diike manage tlie "little 
Queen," however, ni)on an occasion when he presented 
to Her Majesty a conrt-manial death -sentence which he 
expected her to si,i;n as a matter of course. A soldier 
was to he executed for desertion, and tlie Queen raised 
her blue eyes, full of tears, saying* to the Duke, 

" Have 3"ou nothing to say in behalf of this man?" 

" JSTothing," said the Duke; " he has deserted three 
times." 

" Oil, Your Grace, think again!" 

" Well, your Majesty, he certainly is a had soldier, 
hut there was somebody who spoke as to his good 
character. He may be a good fellow in civil life." 

" Oh, thank you!" said the Queen, and she immediately 
wrote " Pardoned" across the paper, to the astonish- 
ment of the Duke and also to his amusement. 

But George IV., old, puffy, and infirm, " dressed" (as 
the Duke once described him) " in a dirt}" silk jacket 
and turban nightcap, one as greasy as the other," was 
not a spectacle calculated to melt the Iieart; while the 
young Qneen, " small and slender, but woll-formed, her 
hair the darkest shade of flaxen, and her ejes large and 
light blue— really a very lovely girl, with a fine delicate 
rose-bloom comx)lexion, " would naturally have quite a 
different effect on the heart of even the " Iron Duke." 

At any rate, the Duke used afterwards to tell the 
story of his own discomfiture with much humor, and he 
used to own that he admired greatly the kindness of 
heart shown at that time by the spirited little queen. 

Prince Albert, while traveling through Switzerland 
and northern Italy in order to divert the minds of others 
from the marriage to be, appears to have had the con- 
sideration of that event constantly in his own. Memen- 
toes of his journey were frequently dispatched to the 
Queen, whom he did not by any means allow to forget 
liim. From the top of the Eigi he sent her a dried "rose 



FIFTY "YEARS A QUEEN^. 69 

des Alpes," and from the house of Voltaire at Ferney, a 
scrap of Voltaire's haudwritiug, amongst other things 
that have become priceless treasures to the Queen of 
England. 

It is more than fifty years since these tokens from the 
youth of eighteen came to tlie royal maiden of nearly 
the same age. They are hits of the bric-a-brac of senti- 
ment, so to si^eak, that remain to the royal widow to 
remind her of what has been for which reason she 
treasures them, and bears them about with her where- 
ever she goes. 

The first Christmas of lier queenbood, her Majesty 
I)assed at Windsor Castle right royally. A month later 
—January, 1838 — Prince Albert was at Brussels visiting 
his uncle King Leopold. From that place he wrote to 
his father at Coburg, that he was satisfied with regard 
to the Queen's intentions toward himself, as " his uncle 
had spoken fully to him respecting his future i)ros- 
l^ects;" and he adds: " The Queen has in no way altered 
her mind, but she does not wish to marry for some time 
yet." 

Thus would it seem that the wooing o't was progress- 
ing satisfactorily, although the ship of state at the same 
time was b.y no means a craft fair sailing in merry Eng- 
land. Squalls and counter-squalls troubled the course 
of that noble vessel, and threatened it with disaster. 
Grai^hically Mr. McCarthy describes the English system 
of government by i)arty: "It makes the history of Parlia- 
ment," he said, " seem like that of a succession of great 
political duels. Two men stand constantly confronted 
during a series of years, one of whom is at the head of the 
Government, while the other is at the head of the opposi- 
tion. They change places with each victory. The con- 
queror goes into office, the conquered into opposition." 
When Victoria came to the throne. Lord Melbourne 
became her i)rime minister. He was greatly in her 



70 FIFTY TFARS A QUEEN. 

favor because of liis agreeable qualities and amiable clis- 
X)Osition together with the desire which he showed to 
make the life of the queen happy, and in all things to do 
the best for her. Tlie favor which he had won from the 
young sovereign, his constant attendance upon her, and 
the weight which his counsels obviously carried in the 
mind of the queen, attracted liostility towards the 
minister, which he was x>resently made to feel by the 
opposition. 

In the great i^olitical duel which Parliament then was, 
with Lords Brougham and Lyndhurst foremost in the 
opposing ranks, these two men of consi)icuously large 
ability confronting the ministerial party, notoriously 
weak, made the position of the ministry (as some one 
said) " like a water-logged wreck, into which enemies 
from all quarters were pouring broadsides." 

This flattering picture of the condition of the govern- 
ment at the beginning of the young queens reign was 
moreover suj^plemented by hard times. Unusual distress 
prevailed among the manufacturing and working classes. 
Without knowing exactly where to lay tlie blame for the 
state of affairs prevailing, and since it was desirable to 
put it somewhere, it was by some charged to the frivol- 
ity of Lord Melbourne, who was accused of leading the 
youthful queen into like trivial practices. 

Delighted as were the English people that the Duke 
of Cumberland had gone to reign over the Hanoverians, 
that i)rovidential circumstance had assumed the aspect 
of a blessing that brightened as it took flight, aud the 
design took on tlie form of expression that " the all but 
infant queen" be deposed, and the King of Hanover be 
brought back to reign in England. 

Probably this heroic remedy in the situation was not 
considered in quarters where authorit^^ rested. O'Con- 
nell, the great Irish leader, came gallantly to the 
championship of the queen in the House of CommonSj 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 71 

wlieii liis great voice rolled tlirongli the ball iu tlie fol- 
lowing declaration: " If necessar}', I can get five hun- 
dred thousand brave Irishmen to defend the life, the 
honor, and the i^ersou of the beloved young lady by 
whom England's throne is now filled." 

As Prince Albert had written, " there was a network 
of cabals and intrigues and i)arties arrayed against each 
other in tbe most inexplicable manner." But Mr. OCon- 
nell did not find it necessary to bring forward his forces 
for the purpose of defending the queen, nor did the 
malcontents succeed in recalling the King of Hanover 
to take her place on the throne. 

One of the first acts of Queen Victoria after she came 
to the crown, was to i)rovide for the discharge of such 
indebtedness as still remained against the Duke of 
Kent, her father. To her Prime Minister, Lord Mel- 
bourne, she said : " I rmist do it, I consider it a sacred 
duty." And not only did the queen discharge the debt in 
full, but she sent besides valuable ])ieces of plate to the 
largest creditors — a testimonial from herself which she 
considered due to the kindness which they had shown 
by their long patience in waiting. 

It was eighteen years after his death that the Duke 
of Kent, who scarcely ever in his lifetime felt the luxury 
of being out of debt, had, by the filial love of his 
daughter, his memory relieved of a responsibility that 
had been a corroding care of liis existence. 

To the Duchess, the faithful wife, the gratification 
was great, since it afforded her an opportunity to wit- 
ness the result of the integrity of principle inculcated 
upon her royal child, and, at the same time, a duty fin- 
ished, to the accomplishment of which much of her own 
life had been dedicated. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE CORONATION OF VICTORIA.— SPLENDORS OF THE 
CORONATION CEREMONY. — PRINCE ALBERT DECLARED 
OF AaE.— THE PRINCES ALBERT AND ERNEST ARRIVE 
IN ENGLAND —THE QUEEN OFFERS HER HA?s^D AND 
HEART TO PRINCE ALBERT. — ENGAGEMENT OP THE 
QUEEN AND PRINCE. — HER MAJESTY INFORMS HER 
PRIVY COUNCIL OF HER APPROACHING MARRIAGE TO 
PRINCE ALBERT OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA. 

May 23, 1838, PriDce Albert wrote to Lis father from 
Bonn: "So you go to Eiighiud for the corouation, aud 
afterwards we shall have the happiness of seeing you 
with us. Inconvenient and tiring as the doings will be 
in London, they will still be very interesting. It is a 
great pity that mamma " (the Duke of Cobiirg's second 
wife) "should not be going also; it would have been more 
uatural, and I am sure the Qaeen will be very sorry not 
to see lier." 

Her Majesty had been Queen exactly one year and a 
week before her coronation, which took i)lace ou the 
twenty-eight day of June, 1838. 

The day was ushered in with exceeding pomp and 
ceremony. Guns roared forth their joy and so did the 
people. From the Tower of London tiie cannon ex- 
changed salutes with those in St. James's Park, while 
the vast multitudes of people from ever^^ i^ortion of 

72 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJS^. 73 

England and tlie Continent were greeting and exchang- 
ing congratulations in the streets. 

A magnificent new crown Lad been made for the 
youthful sovereign. Into its formation all the jewels of 
the crown of the Georges and of William had been mas- 
sed. The jeweler's best skill had been taxed to make 
this creation one of splendor and of beauty. This day it 
was to rest on the head of her Majesty Queen Victoria. 

Escorted by squadrons of the Blues, the Life Guards, 
the Scots Fusiliers, and other military bodies, and by the 
great lords and ladies of her kingdom, the girl -sovereign 
liroceeded to Westminster Abbey, where she was to be 
invested with the crown. 

"The great procession," said the London Times of that 
date, " started from Buckingham Palace at ten o'clock 
in the morning. The first two State carriages, each 
drawn by six horses, hold the Duchess of Kent and her 
attendants. The Queen's motlier, regally attired, was 
enthusiastically cheered all along the way. The Queen, 
in the grand State coach drawn by eight magnificent 
cream-colored horses, with flowing manes and tails, 
followed. 

"Along the line from Buckingham Palace to Westmin- 
sterAbbey, military bands and battalions were stationed, 
playing the national airs and presenting arms; and along 
the route swarms of people were scattering flowers, wav- 
ing handkerchiefs, or making other joyous demonstra- 
tion. 

"A scene of the utmost grandeur was displayed in 
Westminster Abbey on the entrance of the Queen and 
her train. On each side of the nave, reaching from the 
western door to the organ screen, were the galleries 
erected for the spectators. These were all covered with 
crimson cloth fringed with gold, and below were lines of 
footguards. The old stone floor, impressed by footsteps 
of kings who had been crowned, was covered with purple 



74 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

and crimson, and under the center tower of the Abbey, 
inside the choir, a few steps from the floor, was a carpet 
of purple and gold, upon which was a platform covered 
with cloth of gold, on which was the golden * Chair of 
Homage." The old chair in which all the sovereigns of 
England since Edward the Confessor had been crowned 
stood within the chancel, and the " Stone of Scone," on 
which the ancient Scottish kings luid been crowned, was 
drai3ed with a cloth of gold. The galleries, in which 
were seated foreign Princes, Embassadors, and Members 
of Parliament, were ui^holstered in crimson cloth and 
regal tapestries. In the organ loft, the singers were 
dressed in white, and the instrumental performers in 
scarlet; and far above was a band of trumpeters whose 
music, pealing over the heads of the assembly, produced 
a fine effect. 

The foreign Princes and Embassadors were resplend- 
ent in the dazzling costumes of their orders. Prince 
Esterhazy surpassing all by an exhibition of i)recious 
stones sparkling on his person from head to foot. 

In her royal robe of crimson velvet, furred with ermine 
and trimmed with gold lace, her Majesty entered, wear- 
ing the collars of her orders and on her head a golden 
circlet, her long train held by eight young ladies of 
noble birth, looking regal. As she entered the Abbey 
the choir and orchestra broke out into " God save the 
Queen;" then, as she advanced slowly towards the choir 
amid deafening cheers, the anthem, " I was glad, " was 
sung; and after that the choir-boys of Westminster 
chanted " Yivat Victoria Regina ! " The Queen moved 
slowly to a chair between the Chair of Homage and the 
altar, before which she knelt in prayer. 

On the conclusion of tbe anthem, the Archbishop of 
Canterbury and the high officers of State moved to the 
east side of the " theatre, " when the Primate said in a 
loud voice, " I here present to you Queen Victoria, the 



FlFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 75 

undoubled Queen of this realm, wherefore all of you who 
are come this day to your homage, are you willing to do 
the same ? " 

The "recognition," "Glod save Queen Victoria, " was 
cried by the i^eople and repeated from every side of the 
" theatre" amid the pealing of trumpets and the heating 
of drums, tlie Queen standing through the ceremony and 
each time turning her head towards the point from 
which the " recognition " came. 

This was followed by the receiving and presenting of 
offerings, the reading of prayers, and by the sermon; 
then followed the administration of the oath, and the 
catechism by the Archbishoi) in regard to the Estab- 
lished Church. 

The Queen was conducted to the altar, where, kneel- 
ing with her hand upon the great Bible, she said in a 
clear, solemn voice : " The things which I have here be- 
fore promised, I will perform and keep. So help me 
God ! " 

She then kissed the book; and the hymn, " Come Holy 
Ghost, our souls inspire," was sung by the choir, the 
Queen still kneeling. 

Her Majesty seated herself in St. Edward's chair; a 
gorgeous cloth of gold was held over her head; and tbe 
Archbishop anointed her with holy oil, in the form of a 
cross. Prayers were offered, the sword and spurs were 
presented, her Majesty was invested with the Imi)erial 
robe, the sceptre, and the ring, the new crown was con- 
secrated and blessed, and the Queen crowned. 

The moment the Queen was crowned by the Primate, 
and the Peers and Peeresses lifted to their own heads 
their coronets, and the Queen was conducted to the chair 
of homage. 

The Lords spiritual, headed by the Primate, performed 
the first homage to the Queen, kneeling and kissing her 
hand. Then came the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge 



76 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

her majesty's uncles, who, removing their coronets, and 
touching them to the crown, solemnly pledged their al- 
legiance and kissed the Queen on the left cheek. Then 
the other Peers did homage by kneeling, touching coro- 
net to crown, and kissing her majesty's hands. 

When the sacrament was administered to the Queen, 
she laid aside her crown wliile partaking, and again as- 
suming it, received the final benediction. 

In King Edward's Ohapel, the Queen changed tbe im- 
j)erial robe for the royal robe of purple velvet, and 
passed out of the Abbey wearing her crown, bearing the 
scepter in her right band, and the orb in lier left. She 
entered lier State carriage and was driven back to Buck- 
ingham Palace, amid the plaudits of the people, frantic 
in their demonstrations of loyalty. 

At the time of the coronation, her Majesty conferred 
the order of the Garter on the Dake of Ooburg. The 
time was fast approaching when Prince Albert and his 
brother Ernest were to part in pursuit of their several 
destinies. These brothers had been inseparable com- 
l)anions and loyal friends, loving each other more ten- 
derly than brothers often do. After the parting had 
taken place, the Prince wrote to his grandmother: "^ow 
I am quite alone. Ernest is far off, and I am left behind, 
surrounded by so many things which keep up the con- 
stant illusion that he is in tbe next room. To whom 
could I turn, to whom pour out my heart better than to 
you, dear grandmr.mma, who always take such interest 
in everything that happen to us; who also know and 
understand us both so well ?" 

The projected journey of Prince Albert through Italy, 
by the advice of the King of the Belgians, in order that 
he might become more mature and self-reliant, was be- 
gun, with Mr. Seymour for a companion. He had re- 
turned to Ooburg, in June, 1839, when the coming of age 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJf. 77 

of li is brother Ernest, tlie Lereditary Prince of Saxe- 
Coburg, was to be celebrated. 

By a si)ecial act of Legislature, Prince Albert was to 
be declared of age nt tlie same time, and be says: "I 
appreciate this proof of papa's affection aud confidence 
as I ought. And this assurance is what makes this step 
so agreeable to me; for without it, the thought that I 
had ceased to be a child of the house would have been 
rather a source of sorrow than of pleasure. I shall do 
my best to show myself in all things deserving of his 
confidence." 

From the dear uncle LeoiJold tlie first intimation of a 
marriage with her cousin Prince Albert came to the 
Queen when she was the Princess Victoria. The 
Prince used to say that, when he thought of marrying 
at all, he thought of marrying her and no other. When 
he was three years old, his nurse used to tell him that 
he was to marry the Queen of England; and the Dowa- 
ger Duchess of Ooburg~the grandmother whom he very 
sincerely loved — impressed it upon his young mind that 
such was the destiny she ardently desired for him. His 
loved uncle Leopold was also anxious for the union of 
his niece and nei)hew, and it appears that he was con- 
fidential with both on the subject. 

Most strenuously had King William opposed the mar- 
riage, and he had arranged as many as six other mar- 
riages for the Princess, or contemi^lated their arrange- 
ment,without, however, mentioning the subject to her at 
any time. Her mother's desire was strongly for the 
marriage of the cousins, and the time was now drawing 
near when a definite settlement was to be made Avith re- 
gard to it. 

The first step towards this was declaring the Prince 
of age. To the proposition ontbe part of the Queen to 
wait some years the Prince objected on the score that if 
he waited a few years, and tben the Queen should change 



78 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

her mind, it would be to the detriment of his career in 
life; and it was with the settled determination of inform- 
ing her that it must he "now or never" that he went over 
to England with his brother Prince Ernest, and with the 
following letter from the King of the Belgians to the 
Queen of England, dated at Lacken, Oct. 8th, 1839: 

" My Dearest Yictoria, — Your cousins will be them- 
selves the bearers of these lines. I recommend them to 
your * bienveillance.' They are good honest creatures, 
deserving your kindness, and not pedantic, but really 
sensible and trustworthy. I have told them that your 
great wish is that tiiey should be quite at tlieir ease with 
you. I am sure that if you have anything to recommend 
to them they will be most happy to learn of it from you." 

Thursday, Oct. 10th, 1839, at half-past seven o'clock 
in the evening, the Princes arrived at Windsor Castle, 
and were very cordially received by the young Queen, 
who herself conducted them to her mother, the Duchess 
of Kent. 

In the three years since the Queen had last seen 
Prince Albert, he had grown very handsome and manh^, 
facts at once noted by her gracious majesty". They had 
arrived in advance of their wardrobes, and were on that 
account obliged to absent themselves from the royal 
dinner-table, although they made their appearance after- 
wards for a while. 

Five days after their arrival — on the 15th— the Qneen 
told Lord Melbourne that she had made np her mind to 
the marriage, a communication which pleased him greatly, 
and which he thought " would be well received," for 
" there was anxiety now that it should be so;" and he 
told her that she would be far more comfortable, " for a 
woman cannot stand alone for any time, in whatever 
position she may be." 

That must have been Carlyle's opinion too, for he had 
said, after looking at her: "Poor little Queen ! She is 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN 79 

at an age at which a girl can hardly be trusted to choose 
a bonnet for herself, yet a task is laid ni)on her from 
which an archangel might shrink. '^ 

On the same day the Prince was informed tbat the 
Queen particuhirly desired to speak with him the next 
day. What the Queen tohl him was, that she loved him 
with lier whole heart, and that she wished to be his wife. 

In her position she was obliged to do the proi:>osing 
herself, which it ai)pears she got through with in a 
straightforward manner; and she was accepted without 
hesitation. To the King of Belgium she wrote on the 
same day (Oct. 15th): " My dearest Uncle, — This letter 
will I am sure give you pleasure, for you have always 
showu and taken so warm an interest in all that concerns 
me. My mind is quite made up, and I told Albert this 
morning of it. The warm affection he showed me on 
learning this gave me great pleasure. He seems per- 
fection, and I think that I have the prospect of great 
happiness before me. I love him more than I can say, 
and shall do everything in mj i)ower to render this 
sacrifice (for such in my opinion it is) as small as I can. 
lie seemed to have great tact, a very necessary thing in 
his i)osition. These la^t few days have i)assed like a 
dream to me, and I am so much bewildered by it all that 
I know hardly how to write; but I do feel very happy. 
It is absolutely necessary that this determination of 
mine should be known to no one but yourself and to 
uncle Ernest until after the meeting of Parliament, as it 
would be considered, otherwise, neglectful on my part 
not to have assembled Parliament at once to inform them 
of it. Lord Melbourne, whom I have of course consulted 
about the whole affair, quite approves my choice, and 
exx)resses great satisfaction at this event, which he 
thinks in every way highly desirable. Lord Melbourne 
has acted in this business, as he has always done to- 
wards me, with the greatest kindness and affection. Wa 



80 FIFTY YEAKS A QUEE^N^. 

also tLink it better, tiud Albert quite approves of it, that 
we should be married very soon after Parliament meets, 
about the beginning of February. 

" Pray, dearest uncle, forward tliese two letters to 
uncle Ernest, to whom I beg you will enjoin strict 
secrecy, and exx>lain these details, which I have not time 
to do, and to faithful Stockmar. I think you might tell 
Louise of it, but none of ber familj^ I wish to keep tiie 
dear young gentleman here till the end of next mouth. 
Ernest's sincere pleasure gives me great delight. He 
does so adore dearest Albert." 

The dear uncle Leopold's joy was great indeed upon 
this hax^py conclusion to what had been his great desire. 
He had, he said, when he learned the Queen's decision, 
almost the feeling of old Simeon: "jN'ow lettestthou thy 
servant dei)art in pence." 

On farther consideration, as Parliament could neither 
help nor hinder the marriage, it was decided to assemble 
the Privy Council and announce it to them on the de- 
parture of the princes, which was at hand. 

Secretly the Prince had written to his grandmother, 
the Dowager Duchess of Gotha, that the Queen iiad sent 
for him alone to her room, and h^j^d declared, in a genu- 
ine outburst of love and affection, that he had gained 
her whole heart, and that it would make her intensely 
happy if he would make her the sacrifice of sharing his 
life with her, enjoining silence, however, on the Duchess 
for tlie present regarding the event. 

Meantime, the royal lovers were enjoying the time 
very fnlly. Both fond of riding, they were much on 
horseback together. From the Queen's journal the fol- 
lowing is gleaned: 

" At ten minutes to twelve I set off in my Windsor 
uniform and cap, on my old charger * Leopold,' with my 
beloved Albert, looking so handsome in his uniform (the 
green uniform of the Coburg trooi)s), on my right, and 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 81 

^ir Jolin Macdoiiakl, the adjutant general, on mj^ left * * 
^ * * I rode down the rankw, and tlien took my place as 
nSiial, witb dearest Albert on my riglit, and Sir JoLn 
Macdonald on my left, and saw the tioo])S march past. 
They afterwards manoenvered. The riiies looked beauti- 
ful. It was piercing cold, and I had my cape on, which 
dearest Albert settled comfortably for me. He was so 
cold, being 'en grande teuue,' with high boots. We 
cantered home again, and went in to show ourselves to 
l)Oor Ernest, who had seen all from a window." 

November 14th, 1839, the princes left Windsor Castle 
for Ooburg, and had stopped at Wiesbaden to visit their 
uncle Leopold, then staying there. Six days later, No- 
vember 20th, the Qneen left Windsor for Buckingham 
Palace, with her mother, and that day Lord Melbourne 
submitted to her a copy of the notification of the mar- 
riage to be made to the Privy Council on the 23rd. 

Meantime her Majesty had written to the Queen 
Dowager, (her aunt Adelaide,) and to the other mem- 
bers of the royal family of England, informing them of 
her intended marriage, receiving in every case kind re- 
i:)lies. 

Precisely at 2 o'clock, November 23rd, the Queen en- 
tered the bow-room on the ground floor of Buckingham 
Palace, where eighty members of the Privy Council were 
assembled to hear from the Queen's own lips the declara- 
tion of her purpose to marry Prince Albert. In her owii 
words: " The room was full, but I hardly knew who was 
there. Lord Melbourne I saw looking kindly at me, with 
tears in his eyes, but he was not near me. I then read 
my short declaration. I felt my hands shake, but I did 
not make one mistake. I felt most happy and thankful 
when it was over. Lord Lansdowne then rose, and iii 
the name of the Privy Council, asked that 'this most 
gracious and tnost welcome communication might be 
printed.' I then left the room, the whole thing' not last- 



82 FIFTY YEARS A QLEEIV. 

ing above two or three minutes. Tlie Duke of Cam- 
bridge came into the small library where I was standing, 
and wished me joy. " Tlins was the ordeal over, and t!ie 
secret hitherto kept made known to the world. 



CHAPTER XI. 

JOY IN ENGLAND OVER THE COMINO MARRIAGE OF THE 
QUEEN.— OFFICIAL DECLARATION OF THE MARRIAGE IN 
COBURG. — THE QUEEN IS CONGRATULATED BY PARLIA- 
MENT ON HER HAPPY ENGAGEMENT.— ENVOYS LEAVE 
ENGLAND TO CONDUCT THE PRINCE FROM COBURG. — 
PRINCE ALBERT RECEIVED BY THE QUEEN AT BUCKING- 
HAM PALACE.— MARRIAGE OF THE QUEEN AND PRINCE. 
— THE ROYAL MARRIED PAIR GO TO WINDSOR CASTLE 
FOR THEIR HONEYMOON. 

Ou the evening of the day of the declaration, tlie 
Queen returned to Windsor witli tbe Duchess of Kent. 
Tliat which caused her so much trepidation to read be- 
fore the council, appeared in the Gazette of the same 
date, and was: "I have caused you to be summoned at 
the present time in order that I may acquaint you with 
my resolution in a matter which deeply concerns the 
welfare of my people, and the happiness of my future 
life. 

" It is my intention to ally myself in marriage with 
the Prince Albert of Saxe-Ooburg and Gotha. Deeply 
impressed with the solemnity of the engagement which 
I am about to contract, I have not come to this decision 
without mature consideration, nor without feeling a 
strong assurance that, with the blessing of Almighty 
God, it will at once secure my domestic felicity, and 
serve the interests of my country. 

83 



81: FIFTY YEARS A QUEEI?'. 

" I have tlioiiglit fit to make this resoliitiou kuown to 
you iit the earliest period, in order that 3^011 may be ap- 
prised of a matter so highly important to me and to my 
kingdom, and which, I x^ersiiade myself, will be most 
acceptable to all my loving subjects.'" 

For the great and very general rejoicing manifested 
throughout England at the intelligence of the Queen's 
contemplated marriage, there were two causes promi 
nent, first: there was alwa^^s the fear before the English 
people, to whom he was repugnant, that the Duke of 
Cumberland— his Majesty of Hanover— might, under 
certain circumstances, return to England as King; for 
should the Queen die without issue, the King of Han- 
over would become King of England, too; and, second: 
the healthy English mind sympathized heartily with 
"love's young dream;" x)articularly in the love dream 
of their girlisli queen and the beautiful young x>i'iiice 
who had won all hearts by his grace and comeliness. 

Vexed questions, however, came before the marriage. 
The statement had been omitted in the aunonncement of 
the marriage that the Prince was a Protestant, and while 
the fact was a pretty plain one, still the omission caused 
a good deal of heated discussion. The subjects of income, 
of household, of precedence, and of the title to be accor- 
ded the Queen's husband also involved much debate, to 
the great discomfort of the Queen. 

Since the time of Queen Anne there had been no reign- 
ing Queen of England whose husband's position had 
been settled, and her case would, therefore, serve as a 
precedent in the present instance — if Prince George, of 
Denmark, one of the most stupid of men, could be used 
profitably as a i)recedent in any case. He had been 
Lord High Admiral of England, and had enjoyed other 
distinctions of which lie never made any i^articular use; 
therefore, in the case of Prince Albert, there was as 
good as no x>recedent at all to guide those endeavoring 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 85* 

to settle his status. Could tlie legislators of Eu gland 
have only known at that time that Prince Albert liad 
resolved to be " Prince Albert," and nothing else, when 
lie ciinie to live in England, it wonld have saved them 
considerable wear and tear mentally, and they conld 
then have devoted Liie whole of their time to the other 
points at issue. 

To Prince Leopold, on his marriage with the Princess 
Charlotte of Wales, Parliament had voted for his house- 
hold fifty thousand pounds a year. The same sum had 
been asked for the household of Prince Albert in tlie 
entire confidence of its being accorded. It was, how- 
ever, cut down to thirty thousand i^ounds, after much 
bitter discussion — more to be attributed to the English 
system of government by party than to any feeling of 
dislike to tlie Queen or to the Prince, which in fact did 
not exist. 

On December 8th, 1839, the official declaration of tlie 
intended marriage was made in Ooburg, and on Januar^^ 
16th, 1840, the Queen opened Parliament, and announced 
to that body her intended marriage, adding that it Avould 
be a source of the most lively satisfaction to find the 
resolution approved b}^ them. 

In both Houses of Parliament the language of con- 
gratulation was warm and cordial. Sir Robert Peel, the 
leader of the opposition in the House of Commons, said 
that he entered entirely into the hopes for the happiness 
of her Majesty in her approaching marriage, " who had 
the singular good fortune to be able to gratify her x>ri- 
vate feelings while she performed her public duty, and 
to obtain the best guarantee for hapi)iness by contracting 
an alliance founded on affection." 

Two days before the assembling of Parliament,- Lord 
Torrinfton and Colonel Grey left Buckingham Palace 
for Gotha, for the i)ariJ0se of escorting Prince Albert to 



86 FIFTY YEJlRS A QUEEIf. 

Eugland, where liis marriage with the Queen was to be 
celebrated on the 10th of February, 1840. 

On January 28th, the Prince set out on his journey, 
and on the 6th of February he arrived at Dover, an ex- 
ceedingly sea-sick prince indeed. From the moment he 
arrived in Eugland an ovation was tendered him at every 
stage of his journey to London. At Buckiugham Palace, 
which he reached at half-past four in the afternoon of 
February 8th, the Queen and the Duchess of Kent, at- 
tended by the whole household, gave him a right royal 
welcome— Her Majesty the warmest of all. 

The following day (Sunday), the Queen and Prince at- 
teuded Divine service in the bow-room of the palace, in 
which she had made her declaration to the Privy Council. 
On this day, as the Queen mentions in her journal, the 
Priuce gave her, as his weddiug gift, a beautiful sap- 
phire and diamond brooch, and she gave him the star 
and badge of the Garter, and the Garter itself set in 
diamonds. 

February 10th the marriage hour was fixed at one 
o'clock at the Chapel Eoyal, and something after eleven 
that morning, the Prince was writing to his grand- 
mother at Gotha: " Dear Grandmamma, in less than 
three hours I shall stand before the altar with my dear 
bride ! In these solemn moments 1 must ouce more ask 
your blessing, which I am well assured I shall receive, 
and which will be my safeguard and my future joy !" 

Since the marriage of the " young hope of England " 
in the days of the Georges— the Princess Charlotte of 
Wales — nothing had so excited the enthusiasm and 
interest of the people as the marriage of the young 
Queen of the realm now did. Thousands upon thousands 
ot* people thronged St. James's Park hours before the 
cortege left Buckingham Palace for St. James'^. The 
back of Carlton Terrace to the foot of Constitution hill 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. g7 

was a dense mass of hiimauity, and tLe brancLes of tlie 
trees along tlie ronte swarmed with iieople. 

At half-past teu o'clock the first arrivals appeared at 
Buckingham Palace. These were members of her 
Majesty's snite. An hour later, gentlemen composing 
tlie foreign suites of his Eoyal Highness Prince Albert 
and the Duke of Saxe-Ooburg-Gotha mustered in the 
grand hall. Prince Albert, dressed in the uniform of a 
British Field Marshal, the collar of the Order of the 
Garter, with the George, set in x)recious stones, the star 
of the order in diamonds, and the Garter embroidered in 
diamonds around the knee, appeared with his father the 
Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and his brother the heredi- 
tary Prince, both wearing orders and decorations. Pre- 
ceeding Prince Albert was the Lord Chamberlain, Yice- 
Chamberlain, the Treasurer, and Comx^troller of the 
Household, the Clerk Marshal, Equerries, and a portion 
of the foreign suite. The Prince entered the carriage 
amid the sound of trumpets and all the honors to her 
Majesty. 

A squadron of Life Guards escorted the Prince to St. 
James's, together with his father and brother, who occu- 
pied the same carriage with him. The Queen left her 
apartment leaning on the arm of the Lord Chamberlain, 
the Earl of Uxbridge. She was accompanied by her 
mother, and followed by a i3age of honor. Her Majesty 
was preceded by the Earl of Belfast, the Earl of Surrey, 
Lord Torrington, the Earl of Albermarle, Colonel Caven- 
dish, Sir George Anson, Lord Alfred Paget, and others. 
On reaching the grand hall, the royal bride was greeted 
on all sides with loud acclamations. She wore no dia- 
monds on her head. She wore a wreath of orange-blos- 
soms and a magnificent veil. A pair of very large dia- 
mond earrings, a diamond necklace, and the collar of the 
order of the Garter were among the jewels she wore. 



88 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJST. 

The Bucliess of Kent and the Diicliess of Siitlierland 
rotle in the same carriage with lier Majesty; and the 
royal cortege left the palace at a slow pace, under a 
strong escort of the Household Cavalry. 

The court in front of Buckingham Palace was occux)ied 
by the bantl of the Eegiment of tlie Blues and one or 
two com])anies of the Grenadier Guards, and the whole 
of the line tlience to the garden entrance of St. James's 
Palace was lined with Horse Guards and a strong corx)s 
of the i^olice. 

At a quarter i^ast twelve o'clock, the band in front 
of Buckingham Palace pealed forth " God save the 
Queen," the signal that her Majesty had entered her 
carriage and was then proceeding to St. James's. Cheers 
rent the air as the Queen passed along the line. Six 
carriages preceded that of the Queen, in which, seated 
with her, was the Duchess of Kent, her mother, and the 
Duchess of S other] and , Mistress of the Eobes. On her 
arrival at St. James's Palace, the Queen was conducted 
to her closet behind the throne-room, where she 
remained, attended by the maids-of-honor and train-bear- 
ers, until the summons was received from the Lord 
Chamberlain that every thing was in order for the 
sovereign's approach to the Chapel. 

In the Presence Chamber the procession was arranged, 
and it x>roceeded to the Chapel Royal, the principal en- 
trances to. whicli were from tlie Ambassador's Court and 
the color quadrangle opposite St. James's Street. Two 
galleries sux)ported by pillars stretched east and west 
the entire length of the chapel. On the floor were two 
pews set apart for the chief nobility and those who took 
part in the procession. The galleries, east and west 
from both sides of the altar to the royal closet, were 
occupied — the ui)i)er end on the right by the cabinet 
ministers and tiieir ladies, on the left by tlie ladies and 
officers of her Majesty's household. Below the choir on 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 89 

the right, and in the galleries opposite, usually appro- 
priated as royal closets, the walls of the building were 
thrown out, and six benches on each side were fitted u^) 
for the accommodation of peers and peeresses and other 
distinguished spectators. The royal closet was assigned 
to the Ambassadors and their ladies, and the whole of 
the seats in the chapel were stuffed, covered with crim- 
son cloth, and elegantly oruamented with gold fiinge. 
On the communion-table was displayed a vast quantity 
of golden plate, including six salvers, one of gigantic 
dimensions, two ponderous and rich vases, four flagons, 
four communion cups, and two magnificent and lofty 
candelabra. 

Within the railing, which was covered with crimson 
velvet, stools were placed on the right of the altar for 
the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and on the 
left for the Bishop of London, Dean of the Chapel Royal. 
In front of the communion table were i)laced four chairs 
of state, gilt, and covered with crimson silk velvet, each 
of different construction, and varying in elevation ac- 
cording to the dignity of their intended occupants. The 
highest, largest in size, and most costly in workmanship 
was of course appropriated to the Queen, and was placed 
somewhat to the right of the center; that on the oppos- 
ite side, immediately on her Majesty's right hand, being- 
set apart for Prince Albert. On her Majesty's left a chair 
was placed for the Duchess of Kent; and on the 
opposite side, on Prince Albert's right, one for the Queen 
Dowager. On the Queen's extreme left were seats for 
tlie Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge, and on Prince 
Albert's extreme right for the reigning Duke of Saxe- 
Ooburg, the hereditary Duke, and Princess Augusta, and 
Princess Mary of Cambridge. The floor of the cliapel 
was covered with rich purple and gold carpeting, the 
prominent figure being the N^orman rose. 



90 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

About half-past-eleven o'clock the Arclibisliops of 
Canterbury and York and the Bishop of London took 
their places within the altar. A few minutes before 
twelve the Queen Dowager entered the chapel royal 
through the Dean's vestry door, and took her seat near 
the altar. Her Majesty wore a robe of rich purple silk 
velvet trimmed with ermine. The Archbishops of Can- 
terbury and York and the Bishop of London immediately 
rose OD the entrance of her Majesty. 

At twenty-five minutes past twelve o'clock, a flourish 
of trumx)ets and drums gave intimation that the i^roces- 
sion of the bridegroom was approaching. On reaching 
the chai)el ro^^al, the drums and trumpets filed off with- 
out the doors, and, the procession advancing, his royal 
Highness was conducted to a seat provided for him on 
the left of the altar. Having reached tbe haut pas, he 
respectfully kissed the hand of the Queen Dowager, 
bowed to the Arclibisliops and Dean, and then entered 
into a close conversation with the Queen Dowager, until 
the trumpets and drums announced the coming of tiie 
Queen. 

Attended by her brilliant train of royal highnesses and 
the highest of England's nobility, the Queen entered, 
wearing the collars of her orders, her train borne by 
twelve unmarried ladies. These were Lady Adelaide 
Paget, Lad}^ Sarah Frederica Caroline Yilliers, Lady 
Frances Elizabeth Cowj^er, Lady Elizabeth West, Lady 
Mary Augusta Frederica Grimston, Lady Eleanor Caro- 
line Paget, Lady Caroline Amelia Cordon Lennox, Lady 
Elizabeth Anne Georgiana Dorothea Howard, Lady Ida 
Hay, Lady Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Stanhope, Lady 
Jane Harriet Bouverie, and Lady Mary Charlotte 
Howard. 

The royal bride approached the altar looking, the 
chronicler (London Times, Feb. Uth, 1840) sets forth, 
" anxious and excited." Her dress was a rich white 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 91 

satin, trimmed witli orange blossoms, lier snperb veil of 
Honiton lace falliDg over it. The bridesmaids, in white 
satin and roses, followed her Majesty; and the mistress 
of the robes, the Duchess of Sutherland, followed them. 

Together the royal bride and groom advanced to the 
communion-table, where the Archbishop of Canterbury 
began reading the service. 

To the question, " Albert, wilt tliou have this woman 
to be thy wedded wife," etc , his Eoyal Highness, in a 
firm tone answered, " I will." 

And when the Archbishop said, " Victoria, wilt thou 
have Albert to be thy wedded husband, to live together 
after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony ? 
Wilt thou obey him and serve him, love, honor, and 
keep in sickness and in health, and forsaking all other, 
keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?" 
the " I will" of her Majesty was heard in every part of 
the house. 

The Duke of Sussex gave away the bride, and the 
ceremony was completed, upon which the Queen affec- 
tionately kissed the Queen Dowager, her aunt Ade- 
laide. 

Firing of guns at one o'clock signified to the waiting 
multitudes outside that the ring had been put on the 
finger of the Queen, a circumstance that fired them with 
great enthusiasm. At twenty minutes to " two the 
Duchess of Kent returned to Buckingham Palace with 
her brother, the Duke of Coburg, and Prince Ernest, her 
nephew— the father and brother of the bridegroom; and 
at ten minutes to two o'clock the Queen and Prince re- 
turned in the same carriage looking radiant with joy. 

Seven royal highnesses of England, and two serene 
highnesses of Ooburg, besides several lords and ladies of 
lofty station, were guests nt the wedding breakfast, and 
at a quarter to four o'clock the bride and groom left 
Buckingham Palace for Windsor Castle for their honey- 



92 FIFTY YEARS A QUEENo 

moon. The iiewly made husband and wife were iu tlie 
first carriage of tLe four tbat formed tbe cortege — her 
Majesty wearing a white satin i)elisse, trimmed witli 
swansdown, and a white satin bonnet and feather, and 
Prince Albert wearing a plain dark traveling dress. 

Every house in Windsor blazed with light on the ar- 
rival of the bridal party, and many of them were hand- 
somely decorated as well as illuminated. The poi)ula- 
tion of Windsor was largely increased by numbers from 
other localities that greatly augumented the crowds 
there gathered. 

At half-past-six the crowd on the castle hill had be- 
come so dense that a passage-way for the royal carriages 
was made with difficulty. The whole street was one 
living mass, while the walls of the liouses glowed with 
crowns, stars, and all the brilliant devices which gas and 
oil could supply. Rockets were sent up to illuminate 
the air, and bells pealed their welcome as the Majesty 
of England and her royal husband entered Windsor, es- 
corted by a body of Life Guards; and at a quarter to 
seven o'clock the Queen, leaning on the arm of Prince Al- 
bert, passed in at the grand entrance of Windsor Castle. 

A right royal feasting and a general one closed the 
wedding day of the Queen at Windsor, at which the 
toast, " Health and happiness to Victoria and Albert," 
was drunk times innumerable. 



OHAPTFE XII. 



EEJOlCINa OVER THE MABRlAaE OF THE QUEEN— THE 
PEOPLE OHEER ;THE QUEEN'S MOTHER— THE QUEEN'S 
FIRST LEVEE AFTER HER MARRIAGE AT WHICH THE 
PRINCE APPEARS — FORMATION OF PRINCE ALBERT'S 
HOUSEHOLD - THE ENGLISH AND SAXON ARMS QUARTERED 
—AFFECTING PARTINGS— WHIGS VERSUS TORIES— THE 
QUEENS TWENTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY-HE R MAJESTY IS SHOT 
AT FOR THE FIRST TIME -PRINCE ALBERT IS MADE RE- 
GENT IN CONTINGENT CIRCUMSTANCES BIRTH OF THE 
PRINCESS ROYAL. 

In all Eugiand uo otlier ueart was so proud and satis- 
fied as that of the Queen's mother, on the night that 
dosed her daughter's wedding-day. Slie saw accom- 
l)lished the realization of her dearest earthly wish in 
this marriage of her daughter — one that liad been a chief 
nini almost from the time of that daughter's birth. 

In the exalted station to wliich her child had attained, 
her mother lov^e and ambition were satisfied, as well tliey 
might be. In the unbounded love by which her own 
was returned, the mother felt more tlian repaid for the 
watchful care of almost twenty-one years bestowed upon 
her child. The filial regard at all times manifest was 
another joy of the royal mother's life, and to all was 
added now the crowning one of this marriage, which 

93 



94 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

X)romise(l abundantly to secure and confirm the liai^pi- 
ness of her daughter's future life. 

The x^landits of multitudes had to-day broken upon her 
ear. She was cheered to the echo by the people — every 
cheer signifying " well done, good and faithful mother," 
for so she was regarded, and as such admired, respected, 
and beloved. 

The Duchess, with the Duke of Coburg and Prince 
Ernest, joined the royal pair at Windsor Castle two days 
after their marriage. On the 14tii the Court returned 
to London, where awaited the royal bride and groom 
congratulations, addresses, and the state visits incidental 
tliereto. 

I^ine days after the marriage the Queen held her first 
Levee with her husband on her left hand. The Duke of 
Coburg soon after departed for his own dominions — a 
l)arting acutely felt by Prince Albert. 

When the Queen tried to console him for the loss of 
his father, he told her, she says, that she had never 
known a father, and could not therefore feel what lie did, 
and that his brother yet in England was now the only 
remaining one of all his earliest ties and recollections, 
but that if she continued to love him as she then did, she 
could make up for all. 

Most anxiously did her Majesty desire to "make up for 
all." The fond wife fervently desired to make her 
"dearest precious husband" happy and contented, and 
she said, "What is in my power to make him happy I 
will do" — a promise which she certainly kept very 
faithfully. 

Parliament had failed to settle the question of prece- 
dence in the case of Prince Albert — an important one 
from a family standpoint, as if his status was not defined, 
his own sons might in the future take the pas of their 
father. 



PIPTY YEARS A QUEEN. 95 

From a position so undignified to the natural Lead of 
a household the letters patent issued b}^ her Majesty in- 
terposed, securing to the Prince the right of precedence 
next to herself. 

The Prince's household was another matter to be ad- 
justed. At the beginning it consisted of a groom of the 
stole, two lord s-in- waiting, two equerries, two grooms-in- 
Avaiting, and a private secretary. The Prince was not 
consulted with regard to these appointments, to none of 
which, however, he made objection, except that, in the last 
case, where close and necessarily confidential relations 
were involved, he desired to choose anotlier than Mr. 
Anson, who proved subsequently to the satisfaction of 
Prince Albert his high character for honor and delicacy 
of tact. 

The reason of the Prince's objection to Mr. Anson at 
tliat time was that for long he had filled a like position 
to Lord Melbourne, a circumstance which might. Prince 
Albert feared, interfere with a line of conduct which he 
had marked out for himself — a thorough avoidance of 
I)olitical partizanship. 

In his own mind he had defined the position which it 
would be best for the Queen to occupy relative to con- 
flicting political i)arties, as well as that most fitting for 
him to observe in the circumstances; and he resolved 
"to sink," as he said, "his own individual existence in 
that of his wife — to aim at no power by himself or for 
himself — to shun all ostentation— to assume no separate 
responsibility before the public " — to be in fact and in 
deed the bosom friend of the Queen and the head of her 
family, who should be before every other her closest 
friend, confidential adviser, and guide in all matters. 

To this end he had written x^reviouslj' with regard to 
the formation of his household: "I should wish particu- 
larly that the selection should be made without regard 
to politics; for if lam really to keep myself free from 



96 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN, 

all parties, my i^eople mast not belong exclusively to 
one side. Above all, these appointments sLionld not be 
mere ' party rewards,' but tlie^^ slionld possess other 
recommendations besides those of i^arty. Let them be 
either of very high rank, or very rich, or very clever, or 
persons who have performed important services to 
England." 

Not so gnarded had been the young Queen with re- 
gard to i^olitical partizanship. With her whole heart 
she leaned to the side in which her feelings were for the 
time interested; but under guidance so discreet as that 
of her i^rudent husband, the Queen's impulse was ruled 
in the strict direction that he deemed right, she heeding 
his counsel unreservedl}' as she loved him. and trusting 
to him wholl^^ in all things. 

The right of the Prince to quarter the Queen's arms 
with his own was another i)oint involving considerable 
questioning. His high mightiness the G-arter King-at- . 
Arms had overlooked the last precedent when Prince 
Leopold had quartered the Princess Charlotte's arms 
with his own. Prince Albert, however, discovered that 
X>recedent, and by it established his own right to the 
quartering of the Queen's arms with those of his own 
famil}^ 

It is just possible that her Majesty's i3olitical bias at a 
former period now operated in the delay and confusion 
of settlements being made for the Prince. The Tories 
had not forgotten the little episode upon which was 
founded the toast, "The Sovereign who would not let 
her belles be Peeled," and they may have been inclined 
(o punish vjcariously her inclination to AVhigism then. 

The toast had been founded upon a laughable contro- 
versy between the Queen and Sir Eobert Peel, upon the 
resignation of Lord Melbourne from the ministry in 1839, 
when Sir Kobert was sent for b}^ her Majesty to form a 
new ministry. He particularly desired the dismissal 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 97 

from the Qiieen'^i service of the Duchess of Sutherland, 
the Mistress of the Eobes, because she was the sister of 
Lord Mori)etli, who was prominent in the opposition; 
and that of tlie Marcliioness of Kormanby, one of tlie 
principal bed-chamber ladies, the wife of the Marquis of 
!N"ormanby, wlio was simihirly situated. 

The Sovereign refused to dismiss lier ladies, as to do 
so "would," she said, "be repugnant to her feelings." 
For the same reason undoubtedly^, that it was repugnant 
to his feelings to have tliese ladies in close and confiden- 
tial attendance on the Queen, with special opportunities 
to prejudice the mind of lier Majesty against his side, 
Sir Robert refused to form a new government; hence the 
toast, widely circulated, and possibly a good share of 
the hostility displayed in the arrangements for the 
"dearest precious husband" of the Queen that were now 
in i^rogress. 

In April, 1840, the Duchess of Kent moved to a house 
in Belgrave Square, separating for the first time from 
her royal daughter Never, since she came to England 
before the birth of the Queen, had the Duchess lived by 
herself; and never since her birth had the daughter 
been from under the roof that sheltered her mother, ex- 
cept on the occasion of her wedding trip to Windsor. 

The parting now decreed by expediency moved them 
both very deeply. In less than a month it was followed 
by another — the parting of the greatly attached brothers. 
Prince Ernest left England for Coburg. The loving 
brothers sang together, "Abschied," a song which Ger- 
man students sing at parting. Prijice Albert, in his 
passionate attachment to everything belonging to father- 
land,, and to this brother above all else there, no doubt 
felt the separation very x)ainfully. The Queen went to 
her husband immediately after his brother had left him, 
and she found him "as pale as a sheet, with eyes full of 
tears. " 



9g FIFTY YEARS A QUEElSf. 

At Claremont the Queen aiicL lier liusbaiid i^assed her 
Majesty's twenty-first birthday alone in the seclusion of 
that charming place. They made it a i)ractice in suc- 
ceeding years to retire to Claremont for the observance 
of the Queen's birthday, when they indulged in the de- 
light of pastoral rambles, and in being alone together. 
The taste of the Prince for fine scener^^ and country 
landscape soon came to be shared by the Queen, who 
gratified her husband by the information that "formerly 
she was too happy to go to London, and wretched to leave 
it; and now, since the blessed hour of her marriage, she 
disliked and was unhappy to leave the country, and 
could be hapxjy and contented never to go to town." 

How the Prince loved the country may be judged from 
a paragraph in one of his letters to his stepmother, the 
Duchess of Coburg: "We came here the day before yes- 
terday to spend a week at stately Windsor, and I feel as 
if in Paradise in this fine fresh air instead of the dense 
smoke of London. The thick heavy atmosphere there 
quite weighs one down." "London particular" had few 
charms for him, it would seem, though he assiduously 
encouraged tlie Queen to be as much in London as possi- 
ble, because he thought it right she should be there. 

The royal family bad received the Prince with much 
kindness, the Dowager Queen Adelaide very warmly. 
The people were won by his affability, and by his evident 
desire to do well in all things. He had l>een seen much 
in i)ublic and admired generally by the masses, and he 
had created a favorable impression by his replies to ad- 
dresses and upon such occasions as he had made oral ad- 
dresses before congregations of people. 

June 10th, exactly four months after the marriage of 
the Queen and the Prince, they started on their after- 
noon ride, when there was made the first of those at- 
tempts on her Majesty's life, that became in after years 
so many. Prince Albert, in his account of it to the 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 99 

Duchess of Gotha, his gTandmother, says: "We drove 
out yesterda}^ afteruoou about six o'clock to pay Aunt 
Keut a visit, and to take a turn around Hyde Park. We 
drove in a small phaeton. I sat on tlie right, Victoria on 
the left. We had hardly proceeded a hundred yards 
from the palace when I noticed, on tbe footpath on my 
side, a little mean-looking man, holding something to- 
wards lis, and before I could distinguish what it was :i 
shot was fired, which almost stunned us both, it was so 
loud, and barely six i)aces from us. Victoria had just 
turned to the left to look at a horse, and could not there- 
fore understand why lier ears were ringing, as from its 
being so very near she could hardly distinguish that it 
proceeded from a shot being fired. The horses started 
and the carriage slopped. I seized Victoria's hands, and 
asked if the fright had not shaken her, but she laughed 
at the thing. . . .■" 

The name of the man (or rather boy, for he was only 
seventeen years old) was Edward Oxford. He was a 
waiter in an inn, and the act was one of mere bravado on 
the part of a poor wretch craving notoriet3\ 

For long afterward the Qneen and Prince were heartily 
cheered b^^ the i)eople when they a])peared abroad. 
Oxford had fired twice at the Queen on that occasion, 
and when brought to trial he refused to have a lawyer, 
saying that he was guilty and should plead so. He was 
X)ronounced insane and sent to a lunatic asylum. 

Early in July, 1840, the situation of the Queen rendered 
it expedient to provide for a Eegency in the case of her 
death, leaving an heir to the crown. By this time 
the Prince had made so favorable an impression on the 
English mind, that, by both i^arties «ind by almost unani* 
mous vote of both Houses of Parliament, he was named 
Regent in the contingency. The one dissenting vote was 
that of the Duke of Sussex in the House of Lords, who 



100 FIFT-Y YEARS A QUEEN. 

explained tbat he "opposed the bill, as he must not al- 
low the rights of liis family to be passed over." 

The Duke of WelliDgton and Sir Eobert Peel, both 
prominent in tlie controversy of "Tory lords versus 
AVhig ladies," were lieartily concurrent in this measure. 
The Duke declared tliat tlie Regent ought to be Prince 
Albert and no one else; nx)on which Lord Melbourne told 
the Queen that the Prince's merit had won the day, and 
that " three mouths ago they would not have done it for 
him. " 

During the next month, when it had been arranged 
that the Queen in person was to prorogue Parliament, 
excitement was caused by a whisper that the Duke of 
Sussex intended on that occasion to dispute Prince Al- 
bert's right of precedence before himself and other mem- 
bers of the royal famil^^ 

Although nothing of the kind happened, there had 
evidently been something to disturb the mind of the 
Queen, who said that "not only the Duke of Sussex but 
other persons who should be nameless had pretended 
that the Prince could not drive with the Queen in the 
state carriage, or sit next to her in the House of Lords." 
The loj^al affection of the Queen, however, most out- 
spoken and positive as it was, warned all persons very 
fully that her wifely devotion to her husband was too 
comi)lete to be infringed in the smallest degree, and that 
she intended to uphold him in all circumstances. 

The first birthday of Prince Albert in England (August 
26, 1840) was passed at Windsor, where the court had 
gone on the adjournment of Parliament. A German 
chorale woke him in the early morning, and at breakfast 
the children of the Queen's sister, Fedore, api^eared in 
the costume of Coburg peasants, affording him glimpses 
of his loved fatherland. 

The presence of the King and Queen of the Belgians, 
three German Princesj who had been his fellow students 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. IQl 

at BouD, tbe Diicliess Kent, Princess Holieulolie, and the 
Dowager Queen Adelaide contributed to tlie liapi:)iuess 
of the Prince's birthday at Windsor; while London, from 
one end to the other, blazed with illuminations in honor 
of the event. 

In the following" month (September) the Prince was 
made a member of the Privy Council, Lords Melbourne, 
John Russell, Clarendon, Minto, and Holland being 
present. "Tlie thing in itself is an empty form, but from 
a distance it seems very grand," wrote the Prince re- 
garding the event. 

There was another event near at hand, the confinement 
of tbe Queen, that was creating much anxiety. The sad 
fate of tiie Princess Charlotte had not been forgotten, 
and that memory had served to make people apprehen- 
sive for the young Queen in similar circumstances. 

There was hurry and excitement in Buckingham 
Palace, November 21st. Gathered there were the Duke 
of Sussex, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of 
London, Lord Palmerston, Lord Melbourne, Lord Albe- 
marle, Lord Errol, the Lord Chancellor, Lord John Rus- 
sell, and as many others of the Privy Council as could be 
gotten together to witness the advent of an heir to the 
English crown. The Duchess of Kent had preceded all 
the others, and was at her daughter's side when the glad 
news was heralded, that the Queen had safely passed 
through the crowning trial of woman's life, whither peas- 
ant or Queen, and that a Princess royal had been born 
to England. 

Tohisfather the Prince wrote on the 23rd: "Victoria 
is as well as if nothing had happened. She sleeps well, 
has a good appetite, and is extremely quiet and cheerful. 
.... I should certainly have liked it better if she had 
been a son, as would Victoria also, but at the same time, 
we must be equally satisfied and thankful as it is." 



102 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

The Queen was safe, there was an heir to the throne 
barring the succession of the King of Hanover, and all 
England therefore rejoiced and was exceeding glad. 



CHAPTER Xin. 



BAPTISM OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL— THE QUEEN OPEN- 
ING- PARLIAMENT— INCIDENTS OF THE MELBOURNE MIN- 
ISTRY—PARLIAMENT PROROaUED— THE QUEEN HOLDS 
THE LAST DRAWIN&-ROOM OF THE SEASON— SIR ROBERT 
PEEL SUCCEEDS LORD MELBOURNE AS PRIME MINISTER — 
PRINCE ALBERT BECOMES PRESIDENT OF THE FINE ARTS 
COMMISSION— DISCOVERY OF YOUNO JONES IN HER MAJES- 
TY'S PRIVATE ROOMS IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE— ROYAL 
HOUSEKEEPING. 

" I caiinot express how happy I am to know you dear- 
est, dearest Yickel safe in your bed with a little one," 
wrote the mother of the Duchess of Kent on the birth of 
the "mayblossom;" and it is the "mayblossom" that is 
now the dearest, dearest Yickel over whicb her mother is 
pouring out her heart in thankfulness in a like situation. 

The Crown Princess was baptized at Buckingham 
Palace on the first anniversary of the marriage of hei 
parents, February 10th, 1841, receiving the names Vic- 
toria Adelaide Mary Louisa, the first in honor of her 
mother and grandmother, and the second of the Queen 
Dowager, the beloved Aunt Adelaide. 

The sponsors were Leopold, King of the Belgians, the 
Duke of Saxe-Coburg (represented by the Dnke of Well- 
ington), the Queen Dowasrer, the Duchess of Kent, the 
Duke of Sussex, and the Duchess of Gloucester. 

103 



104 FIP^TY YEARS A QUEEK. 

The proud young father rei)orted the christening as 
going off well, telling his grandmother that "her little 
great-grandchild behaved with great propriet^^ and like 
a Oliristian. " As all first babies are — no matter in what 
condition born — a royalty in themselves to their parents, 
this wonderful baby, still lacking eleven days of being- 
three months old, was, so her father thought, "crowiug 
with immense satisfaction at the lights and brilliant uni- 
forms on the evening of her baptism." 

The baby in arms had at that tender age arms of her 
own, as became a young Princess — the Saxon arms in the 
middle of the English, which her royal x)apa said, "looked 
A^ery i)retty," and on contemplating his i)aternity, he 
" could scarcely realize that he had been married a year 
and two days. " 

Loyally did England rejoice over the birth of a Crown 
Princess, although deep in its secret heart there was a 
pang of disappointment that the heir to the throne \Yas 
"only a girl." Perhaps, however, it was, as the Queen 
said of Prince Albert, "for a moment only;" ])articularly 
as at that time England had gloomy questions to i)onder 
— quite grave enough to demand her best reflection. 

January 26th, 1841, the Queen opened Parliament in 
person. The Melbourne ministry, long in an unsafe con- 
dition, was in May so insecure as to decide the Prince to 
confer confidentially as to the best method of helping 
the situation and extricating the Queen with credit to 
herself in the coming crisis. 

Eor the "divine right of kings," the wise Prince Al- 
bert had substituted the national constitution, which he 
very carefully studied, and as carefully i)ointed out to 
his wife the scoi)e and limit of. He desired that all 
things should be done constitutionall}^, and, when a new 
ministry should be called, that the Queen should have 
so arranged that the Whig ladies of her household would 
have gracefully retired "of their own accord," thus sav- 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 105 

iug a repetition of the so-called "bed-cliamber i)lot." 
The retirement of tlie ladies was decided upon and ef- 
fected, thus leaving her Majesty's mind in a condition to 
be impressed by Sir Robert Peel as to his views of state 
affairs without lot or hindrance, when he should take the 
helm for the purpose of steering the ship of state through 
the breakers in which she was floundering. 

The Melbourne government had not been one of vigor 
or success, consequently not of satisfaction. Under it 
the clieap postage bill had been passed and had gone into 
effect, and under it also Chartism, a fruitful element of 
disturbance, appeared. The Canadian rebellion, the 
Jamaica bill, and the Opium War were vexed questions 
which, added to the general distress x>revailing at home, 
made still greater the total dissatisfaction. A clamor 
for reforms went up from the people, and many proposi- 
tions as to the nature of those desired were named, while 
the government failed to produce any reform or in any 
way to help the condition of the countiy. 

In a condition so critical the young Queen had her anx- 
ieties, to all of which she was fully and conscientiously 
alive. It has been universally conceded that it was the 
hai)piest circumstance for her, first, that her husband 
Avas a man of great ability and i^erception, with an earnest 
desire to be just, and with a tact so fine, temper so sweet, 
and moderation so great in all things; and, second, that 
the closest confidence existed between them, and that 
she, i:)erceiving the wisdom of her young husband, 
trusted him entirely. 

The sagacious Uncle Leopold had commended to the 
Queen the judgment of the Prince, telling her that it 
Avas "good and calm"— good for her to follow, as it was. 
She had the advantage besides of King Leopold's best 
counsel in the critical situation. 

Baron Stockmar, another keen-sighted and faithful 
ally of the Queen and Prince, was called to council witii 



106 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

tlie King of tlie Belgians on the situation of tlie Englisli 
government about the middle of May, 1841. 

The Baron expressed the opinion that " Lord Mel- 
bourne's rapid change in his i)rofessions on the subject 
of the Corn Laws, into which he had no doubt been per- 
suaded by his colleagues out of mere good-nature and 
easiness of disposition, had an ugly look." 

It was this very "good-nature and easiness of disposi- 
tion" that among other amiable qualities endeared Lord 
Melbourne to the Qnaen. With such ijower as he was 
endowed with by nature, he made undoubtedly an honest 
effort to do as best he could for the government; and he 
betrayed clearly a degree of magnanimity towards the 
l^arty in opposition to him that was at any rate credita- 
ble to his kindness of heart. "A weak man of a sweet 
disposition and agreeable personality," he had won the 
favor of the Queen, to whom it was painful to part with 
him as her Prime Minister; and also of the Prince, who 
had come to recognize the necessity of the change, and 
who was ready to accept it, because it was a necessity 
and a duty also. 

"To support frankly and honorably, and with all its 
might, the ministry of the time, whatever it might be, so 
long as it commanded a majority and governed with in- 
tegrity for the welfare and advancement of the country," 
Avas, in the Prince's estimation, plainly the duty of the 
Crown. 

To do this on constitutional principles was the effort 
inculcated upon the Queen by her thoughtful husband, 
who sui^iDorted her in its i)erformance. 

In all the turmoil of politics the Queen and Prince 
snatched short i^eriods of recreation. The Duchess of 
Kent had gone for a visit to her German home for the 
first time sinces he had come toEngland before the birth of 
the Queen ; and to her Prince Albert is giving an account 
of the manner in which time is passing. The life of the 



SHIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 107 

Queen and himself is unsettled. They have paid visits 
to the Archbishop of York at Nuneham, and to Oxford 
for the commemoration. They went to Chiswick to visit 
the Dnke oi Devonshire; to Woolwich to witness the 
launch of the T.rafalgar; to Woburn Abbey the seat of 
tlie Duke of Bedford; to Panshanger and Brocket Hall, 
Lord Melbourne's residence; and to Hatfield, where once 
lived Queen Elizabeth before her brother Edward died, 
and before Mary became Queen, winning the title of 
"bloody Mary" — poor wronged and wronging wretched 
creature, and when the young mind of Elizabeth had an 
abundance to occupy it as to what her own outcome 
might be. 

Parliament was prorogued; the last drawing-room of 
the season was held, and London was deserted by the 
great political lights, who had adjourned to the hustings 
the conflict waged in the Houses of Lords and Commons. 

The api)roaching fall of the ministry was the subject 
engrossing all minds. "It emptied purses," Prince Al- 
bert said, "set families by the ears, demoralized the 
lower classes, and perverted many of the upper, whose 
characters wanted strength to keep them straight" — a 
capital picture of political procedure on this side of the 
water, from which perhaps our people have been 
copying. 

Lord Melbourne reported to the Queen as the result of 
recent elections that the Conservatives would Lave a 
majority of seventy, a warning to her that the new minis- 
try, which she by no means liked to think of, must be 
accepted. It was accepted by Sir Eobert Peel as Premier, 
who had learned very thoroughly to like and respect 
Prince Albert— a certain recommendation to the favor of 
the Queen, who, probably on that account, found her new 
Prime Minister much more agreeable than she had sup- 
posed possible. 



108 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEIf. 

The Prince had been made chief of the Eine Arts Com- 
mission, fortunately for the movement (a most valuable 
one to the countr^^), and to Sir Eobert, who proposed 
the commission, Prince Albert, as the chairman, felt him- 
self indebted. To the Queen he said that he owed Sir 
Eobert Peel his first initiation into public life, for that 
this commission was tlie commencement of his connection 
with the leading public and literary men of the country;" 
and he considered that it had been as advantageous to 
him as it was pleasurable. 

Just before the dissolution of the last Parliament King 
Leopold and his Queen came to England for a visit. The 
political situation had been anxiously discussed in the 
Queen's private apartments at Buckingliam Palace; but 
these consultations were not so private as the Royal 
Majesties of England and Belgium supposed, for hidden 
in their midst was a "chiel taking notes," and though he 
did not print them, printed the}^ were, and pretty 
thoroughly too. 

It was an astounding fact that a small boy had been 
found hidden behind a sofa in the Queen's private rooms 
— a boy named Jones, who had been making himself very 
much at home in the royal apartments of Buckingham 
Palace for quite a period. He had a great desire to wit- 
ness high life in a palace, and with the audaciousness of 
youth proceeded to gratify his curiosity. Brought be- 
fore a magistrate, he stated with the utmost frankness 
that "he had been in the palace for days at a time ; that he 
hid behind the furniture or up chimneys in the day time, 
and sauntered from room to room at night, helping him- 
self to food and washing his clothes in the kitchen. ITe 
had peeped at the Queen and her ministers in council, to 
which he listened; he lay under the sofa nj^on which the 
Queen and Prince sat, and heard every word they said; 
and he knew every room in the Palace; and said the 
Queen was very fond of i:)olitics." 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 109 

The liousekeepiDg' of the Piilace must have beeo, to say 
the least, peculiar, when such an incursion into it could 
be made without discovery. That it was peculiar, and 
that such a thing was possible, may be deduced, how- 
ever, from the plan on which it was carried out — "a how- 
not-to-do-it" principle admirable for the design of young- 
Master Jones or any i)erson inquisitive to witness the in- 
ner workings of the royal abode. The Lord Steward, the 
Lord Chamberhiin, and the Master of the House were 
three head housekeepers who did each as he x)leased and 
at his own time, and never allowed any one to interfere 
in the smallest degree with his view of housekeeping, 
nor had he any consultation with any one — housekeeper 
or otherwise, as to how it might be done. The Lord 
Steward provided the fuel and liad the tires laid; he 
also provided the lamps, but it was the Lord Chamber- 
lain's business to light them. The windows were washed 
on the inside by the Lord Chamberlain's orders, who 
would on no consideration hav^e anything to do with the 
windows on the outside, because that belonged to an en- 
tirely different department. 

Before the least repairs could be made all the heads 
had to be consulted, and it was sometimes months before 
a pane of glass could be restored because of the miles of 
red tape to be first measured. 

Tliere were no regular deputies of the great house- 
keepers residing in the i^alace, therefore the servants, 
feeling directly resi)onsible to no one, followed their 
own sweet will, and did exactly as tliey pleased and 
when they pleased, affording an opportunity for such en- 
terprising persons as the Jones boy to examine the in- 
terior at leisure. 

After that discovery, Prince Albert consulted the 
Prime Minister as to methods ensuring her Majesty from 
visits of that nature, and found that Sir Eobert Peel was 
timid about suggesting any change in the present system 



110 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEK. 

of lioTise-keeping, on tlie score tbat if aiiytliiug sliould 
be done tliat wonld "seem to impair the antUority of tlie 
great officers of State, or make tliem subordinate to any' 
new control;" sucli offices, "might be less an object of 
ambition tlian tliey then were to very distinguished 
members of the House of Peers." So the royal house- 
keeping progressed in the old channel for some time 
longer, notwithstanding the Piince's entreaty for Sir 
Eobert's assistance in " combating the existing and cry- 
ing nuisances." 

The antiquity of the household machine the Prince 
confessed a sort of reverence for; bnt " it worked so ill," 
he said, " that as long as its wheels were not mended, 
there could be neither order nor regularity, comfort or 
security, nor outward dignity in the Queen's Palace." 

But notwithstanding the })erplexities of housekeeping 
and State affairs, the Queen, it would seem, enjoyed 
much happiness, as about this time she wrote her uncle 
Leopold: " We must all have trials and vexations; but 
if one's home is happy then the rest is comparatively^ 
nothing. I assure jon, dear uncle, that no one feels this 
more than I do. I had this Autumn one of the severest 
trials I could have in parting with my Government, and 
particularly from our kind and valued friend; and I feel 
even now this last very much; but my ha])piness at 
home; the love of my husband; his kindness, his advice, 
his support, and his company make uj) for all and make 
me forget it. " 



OHAPTEE Xiy. 



THE BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES — THE BAPTISM 
OF THE PRINCE — SPONSORS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES— 
THEIR FUTURE KING SHOWN TO THE PEOPLE -THE KINO 
OF PRUSSIA WITNESSING THE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT 
BY THE QUEEN— TROUBLES ABROAD AND UNEASINESS AT 
HOME— A LARGE DEFICIT AND NATIONAL DISTRESS— THE 
DISASTER AT CABUL — GAIETIES INSTITUTED AT COURT TO 
STIMULATE COMMERCE— A SECOND ATTEMPT ON THE 
queen's life — THE THIRD EFFORT TO SHOOT HER 
MAJESTY. 

It was au event of national importance when on tlie 
ninth of November, 1841, the Prince of Wales was 
born in Buckingham Palace in tlie presence of the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and other great dignitaries of 
Church and State. 

Until now no Prince of Wales had been born since the 
twelfth of August, 1762, a lapse of 79 years, when George 
the Fourth came into the world amidst general demon- 
strations of joy— a pleasure nearly as great as when he 
left it sixty- seven years afterwards — detested and des- 
pised by the English nation. Born Electoral Prince of 
Brunswick-Lunenburg, Duke of Cornwall and Eothesay, 
Earl of Carrick, Baron of Eenfrew, Lord of the Isles and 
Great Steward of Scotland, he was created Prince of 
Wales and Earl of Chester by letters patent, a few duys 
after his birth; and it was at that time regarded a happy 

111 



112 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

omen, that miugling' with the roar of artillery was the 
rumble of a tumbrel traiu laden with treasure that had 
beed captured from a Spanish ship, and which was then 
passing St. James's Palace, where the infant prince was, 
on its way to the Tower. 

ISTo such triumph marked the entrance of the present 
Prince of Wales into the world. Far from being vic- 
torious, England was then exceedingly depressed. It 
was menaced abroad and harassed at home. The Mel- 
bourne Ministry had leffc that of Peel confronting an 
annual deficit of over two million pounds, soon to be 
increased to double the amount. Commerce was in a 
deplorable state, the crops were wretched, and many of 
the i)eople were suffering for want of the necessaries of 
life. Yet the rejoicing was great and general; that in 
this case it was a boy — a Prince of Wales — a future king, 
notwithstanding that the memory of the last Prince of 
Wales who had been King-, was not fragrant in the peo- 
ple's nostrils, and that it was by no means a pride or a 
pleasure to remember him either in his age or in his 
youth. 

The Princess Royal had been christened in Bucking- 
ham Palace where she was born; but in this case — that 
of a future King — St. George's Cliapel, Windsor, w^as 
chosen, w'here, with the greatest pomp and splendor, the 
young Prince was bai)tizetl, January 25, 1842. 

As the first child Avas only a girl, her royal parents 
were not x>erplexed very greatly bj^ offers from i)ersous 
in high station to stand sponsor for her; but for the boy 
it was quite another affair. To get peaceably out of the 
difficulty, the King of Prussia was invited over to be 
chief sponsor. The others were the Duchess of Saxe. 
Ooburg, represented by the Duchess of Kent; tlio 
Duchess of Gotlia, represented by the Duchess of Cam^ 
bridge; the Princess Sophia, represented b^^ the Princess 
Augusta of Cambridge; Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Co- 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 113 

burg; and the Duke of Cambridge. As a biickgrouud to 
tbe public pageantry dispbiyed abroad, the happy lionie 
picture of the royal parents suggests the "one touch of 
nature that makes the whole world kin." The young 
mother, writing to her favorite uncle, the King of the 
Belgians, about her baby, says: "I wonder very mnch 
whom our little bo}^ will be like. You will understand 
how fervent are my praj^ers, and I am sure every bod}^ 
must be, to see him resemble his fiither in every, every 
respect, both in body and mind ! Oh, my dearest uncle, 
I am sure if you knew how hai)py, how blessed I feel, 
:ind liow proud in possessing such a perfect being as my 
husband; and if you think you have been instrumental 
in bringing about this union, it must gladden your 
heart !" When her baby was twelve days old her jour- 
nal tells of a home scene in the chamber at Buckingham 
Palace that is eloquent of the home joy there was in that 
sumptuous abode. It was the first anniversary of lier 
first child's birthday, the little Princess Eoyal, of which 
she wrote: 

"Albert brought in dearest little Pussy, in such a 
smart, white merino dress, trimmed Avitli blue, which 
Mamma had given her, and a pretty cap, and i)laced her 
on my bed, seating himself next to her, and she was very 
dear and good. And as my precious, invaluable Albert 
sat there, and our little Love between us, I felt quite 
moved with hai^piness and gratitude to God." Simple 
loving wife and mother, all the grandeur of tlie world 
at her feet, her heart overflowing with wifely and moth- 
erly devotion — the crown of these dear and sacred rela- 
tions to which her whole being went out, far above and 
beyond tlie Eegal Crown tliat flashed its jeweled radi- 
ance over her brow, and before whicli a world bent down ; 
while here her very soul bowed in Avorshii) at her do- 
mestic altar and lier woman's heart made its homage to 
what woman holds most dear ! 



114 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

In the fiilluess of lier own ]iai)piness the thought of 
that of others presented itself at this period to her mind, 
for she ordered many prisoners to be set free, who were 
serving out sentences of confinement under rigorous cir- 
cumstances; and where this could not be done in justice 
to the State, such clemency as was possible she caused 
to be extended to them. 

George lY., when the baby Prince of Wales, used to 
be exhibited to the people as a precious hope of the 
nation. Before he was two weeks old, the ])ul)lic were 
invited to come and see him on certain days and at cer- 
tain hours at St. James's Palace, where tlie}^ not only 
saw their future King, but Avere besides hospitably re- 
galed with cake and wine, the cake alone costing "forty 
l)Ounds a day," while tlie consumption of wine was 
" quite unexpected," and the amount of it or the cost of 
that item is prudently withheld. So too Avas Albert 
Edward, the i^resent Prince of Wales, shown to the 
IDublic in his babyhood, with this difference, however, 
that it was from an upper window of one of the palaces, 
and cake and wine were not handed to the average 
spectator. 

When the first gentleman in Europe " was under 
three years of age, he replied to an address i)resented to 
him by the Ancient Briton Society, saying very gnice- 
fully: " I thank you for this mark of your duty to the 
King, and I wish i)rosperity to the charity." At about 
the same age the historian Tytler j) resents the little 
Prince of AVales, the son of Queen Victoria, whom he 
saw " happy and merry trotting at her side," his small 
hand in her own in the corridor of Windsor Castle. 
Her Majesty, bowing herself to JNFr. Tytler, said to her 
son, " make a bow, sir !" which he immediately did, 
" politely holding out his hand and smiling" at the de- 
lighted historian, who "bowed low and kissed it, " ob- 
serving the while the Queen's loving pride of the "little 



FIFT5 "TEARS A QUEEN. Il5 

Prince, for tlie gracious way in wliicli he deported him- 
self." 

On the 3rdof February, 1842, when the infant heir to 
the crown of England lacked yet six days of being three 
months old, the Queen was opening Parliament surround- 
ed by unusal splendor. The King of Prussia was pre- 
sent and to be honored, and her Majesty felt an increased 
dignity in her own iDcrson as tlie mother of a Prince of 
Wales, now appearing for the first time before Parlia- 
ment with that distinction upon her. 

Escorted by the magnificent corj^s of Horse and Grena- 
dier Guards and the Yeomen of the Body Gnard, she 
rode that day through streets that were thronged with 
rejoicing multitudes, accomi)anied by her husband to 
Westminster, where she was to announce to her Lords 
and faithful Commons the birth of a future king. In her 
robes of State, with the bloom and beauty of less than 
twenty- three years upon her, and as full and happy a 
heart as that of any beloved and loving wife and mother 
within the kingdom, " she looked worthy and fit to be 
the converging point of so many raj's of grandeur," as 
she sat ui>on her throne in the House of Lords, waiting 
for the apx)earance of the Commons, who were to listen 
to her opening speech, an arbiter of destinies, holding- 
life and death in her hands. 

Charles Sumner has told us of the perfection of her 
manner of speaking from the throne. This day she 
"felt herself to be chief among grand national realities," 
and, she looked every inch a Queen ! 

One ghastly reality was then Impending, the terrible 
disaster in Cabul, and around this chief horror were 
several anxieties clustered that taxed severly the minds 
directing the fortunes of Great Britain, its sovereign, 
and her confidential advisers, ^ot yet had the massacre 
in Afghanistan been heard of; but abroad the condi- 
tion of Si)ain, and circumstances pointing to the inten- 



116 E'IFTY YEARS A QUEEjS". 

tious of Frauce were disquieting. Irelaud was on the 
verge of iusurrectiou; aud America was pressing on tlie 
one Iiand for a settlement of tlie question of the frontier 
of Maine, and on the other, x^rotesting against the inva- 
sion of its sea-going craft by English cruisers investigat 
ing the transport of slaves. At open war with Cliina, 
and obliged to maintain armies at the cape and in the 
West Indies, and a tleet to avert a revolt in Portugal, 
the Government was straining every available resource 
to meet and master the necessities abroad. 

At home the situation was also one of trial. Money 
must be procured for needful expenses, and at a time 
when the country had been i)articularly borne down by 
a palsy of its mercantile, manufacturing and agricultur- 
al resources. Tlie ministry were obliged to come for- 
ward with a proposition of an Income Tax in addition to 
the plain statement that the deficit for the past year of 
2,500,000 pounds, had been increased to 5,000,000 pounds 
by expenses which had been embarked in the expedition 
sent out to Afghanistan, that exi)edition which dwindled 
to one man, under the long knives of a savage x)eople, 
and in the x^asses of a savage wilderness where death re- 
leased a life of torture. Overburdened as the people 
were, and although there were outbreaks in many i)arts 
of the United Kingdom, tiiey responded loyally to the 
exigencies of the Government by which means the 
country was tided over a national bankruptcy, and the 
Peel ministry encouraged to i^ush its way througli the 
difficulties that beset it. 

Upon such a state of affairs the Parliament opened in 
the early days of February, 1842, the young Queen on 
her throne, surrounded by Peers in their robes, and 
ladies radiant in beaut}^ and costly adornments, who was 
delivering her opening speech in an even voice charm- 
ingly modulated, comprehended thoroughly the whole 
situation and appreciated every critical point of it; but 

) 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEfiN. 117 

it was not until a week later tliat sbe learned from Sir 
Robert Peel the fate of the British forces at Oabul. 

Meantime pleasure as well as care demanded atten- 
tion. The Baroness Bunsen described a ball at Windsor 
Castle which took place during the visit of the KiDg of 
Prussia to England at that time. " As soon as the King 
with Prince Albert came, the ball began, the Queen 
making the King dance in a quadrille with herselt, 
wliich he did with suitable grace and dignit}", though 
he had long given up dancing, and though his figure was 
not good. The Queen conversed eagerly with the King, 
laughing heartily (no company laugh) at things he said 
to entertain her." 

It was during the visit of King Frederick William 
that the news of the ai)proaching marriage of Prince 
Ernest of Saxe-Coburg to a Princess of Baden reached 
the Queen and his brother Prince Albert. Because of 
the anxieties of the Queen with regard to national affairs 
Prince Albert declined to absent himself from his wife's 
side long enough to be present at his brother's marriage 
at Carlsruhe, but both of them urged most earnestly, 
Prince Ernest to bring his bride to England to visit 
them. The Queen wrote to her uncle Leopold that her 
heart was full of the marriage because it brought back 
so many memories of her own, Ernest being present at 
that time and longing for a similiar happiness. For this 
reason she entreated her brother-in-law to spend his 
honeymoon with them, desiring earnestly that tlieir 
uncle would urge him to do so, " for, " she saj^s, " he 
witnessed our first hapi^iness and we must therefore 
witness his." 

A round of gaiety was entered upon b^^ the Queen and 
court as a matter of State polic}^ for the purpose of giv- 
ing an impetus to trade. Balls, parties, and receptions 
prevailed in royal and high circles of society; and two 
days after her birthday in May, 1842, the Queen and the 



lis FI^TY YEARS A QUEEi^f. 

Prince attended a ball at Coveiit Garden Theatre, given 
for the relief of the Spitalfields weavers. All of these 
entertainments were stately affairs, it being judged best 
to make them as grand and fashionable as possible; and 
the Queen gave a sui)erb costume ball at Buckingham 
Palace, at which she represented Queen Philippa, and 
the Prince, Edward III., tlie whole court being in cos- 
tumes of that period. France, Italy, and Si)aiu were 
represented in a stately procession of one hundred and 
twenty persons, lieaded by the Duchess of Cambridge. 
While this was being done for tlie benefit of those who 
" liad most of the toil and least of the enjoyments of the 
world," France took advantage of the circumstances of 
the " Bal Costum^^^ to consider lierself aggrieved and af- 
fronted at au idle report that in the procession, " King 
John of France was represented as a prisoner and in 
chains." 

On the following Suuvlay, while her Majesty and the 
Prince were returning from church services at the 
Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace, an attempt was made 
on the Queen's life by John Francis, when the royal pair 
were nearly opposite Stafford House. Prince Albert 
saw the man distinctly as he stepped out from the crowd 
and presented the pistol, the trigger of which he heard 
snax3, but it was not followed by a discharge. The 
Queen at that moment was turned in another direction, 
bowing to the people, who cheered her as slie i)assetl, 
and neither saw nor heard anything of the pistol prac- 
tice. The footmen at the back of the carriage saw noth- 
ing of it, and upon consultation it was deemed best to 
say no more about it, but to watch the crowd on coming 
occasions when it was presumed that the would-be 
assassin would rei)eat the attempt. 

This theory was perfectly correct, as was x) roved next 
day, for returning from a long drive, when the Queen 
and Prince reached the spot where Edw^ard Oxford had 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 119 

shot at lier two years before, there was Frauds, and he 
fired wlieii the carriage was about five paces off. The 
s])ot passed uuder tlie carriage, aud the man was im- 
mediately iu the liands of the police, restrained from 
firiug a second time. An anxious family circle had dis- 
cussed tbe first attempt on her Majesty's life on the 
evening- of the day on which it took place, and the de- 
cision was that the Queen should take her usual drives, 
as to desist from them would alarm tbe man who had re- 
solved to shoot her; and failing in the first attempt, he 
was certain to repeat it. The Queen said that she fully 
expected to be shot at, and would rather run an immedi- 
ate risk at any time than have a i^resentiment of danger 
hanging over her. In that spirit she went for a 
drive the next day, her husband seated by her side, and 
her mother, with Count Mensdorff following- in another 
carriage close behind her, and two equerries riding on 
either side of the Queen's carriage, and as near to it as 
possible. Carefully the royal p:irty scanned every face 
on their route, taking heed of every movement, and they 
had reached the identical spot on Constitution Hill, 
where she was shot at June 10th, 184(;, by Edward Ox- 
ford, when the report of a pistol verified the prediction 
of a farther attempt being made. The aim was not a true 
one, the shot passed under tlie carriage. The would-be 
assassin was John Francis, aged twenty-two, the son of a 
carpenter employed in one of the theatres. In a moment 
he was iu the hands of the police and safe from the per- 
petration of farther mischief. 

Next day the Queen wrote to her uncle King Leopold, 
that " she was not at all frightened, had not been when 
she heard the report of the pistol, though the man who 
fired stood within five paces of her; and the safety of 
her husband formed her chief concern, for which she 
was fervently grateful." She certainly showed wonder- 
ful nerve. Her whole mind must have been possessed 



120 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEH^. 

with the subject when she entered upon the drive upon 
which she might have lost her life. It was a subject 
that had been considered so thoroughl^^ the night before, 
and Count Meiisdorff (an uncle of the Prince and a dis- 
tinguished oflacer) had told her then that if she heard 
the report when the shot was fired, to remember she was 
not hit, because no one hit by a shot heard the report of 
it. She declined to be accompanied by her lady-in-wait- 
ing, who did not then know why she was excused, but 
to whom the Queen explained afterwards, that, as she 
expected to be shot at, she did not wish to put another 
life in peril which could be avoided. 

On his trial, Francis like Oxford at the time of his, 
was full of mock heroism. Something of the bold "x^nn 
tic" order of "Sim Tapertit," he swaggered considerably 
until he was found guilty of the charge of high treason, 
and sentenced to deatli, when he colla^jsed, and fell 
fainting in the arms of one of the officers guarding him, 
and was carried insensible from the room. 

Francis's sentence— mainly through the offices of the 
Queen— was commuted to transportation for life, and the 
very next day after this became known, July 3rd, 1842, 
another attempt upon her life was made by a hunchback 
named Bean, a chemist's assistant. This youth had used 
pieces of cla^^ pipe instead of lead to load his pistol 
with; so, while there was no great danger from his 
marksmanship, it was at the same time an uncomfortable 
sensation for the Majesty of England to find herself 
selected as a target by so many of her subjects. Bean 
had been in low spirits and in an unhealthy state of 
mind, before the peri)etration of the outrage, for he wrote 
to his father a week before that time, that he intended 
to do something desperate, and signed himself an " un- 
hapx)y and disobedient son." 

It was while on her way to St. James's Chapel, Sun- 
day, July 3rd, accomx)anied by the Prince, and the King 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 121 

of the Belguius, that tliis attempt was made. Bean's 
pistol missed fire, and the Queen, not having noticed his 
attempt to shoot, ^yas kept in ignorance of it until she 
had returned to Buckingliam Pahice, after iiaving at- 
tended divine service at the Oliapel Eoyal of St. James's. 
Parliament now took measures to punish as high misde- 
menors such attemi)ts, b^^ transportation for seven years 
or by imprisonment for tliree years, and by private or 
public whippings administered besides. Under this law 
Bean was tried and sentenced to be confined in Mill- 
bank Prison for eighteen months. It is to be hoped he 
got his whii)ping and a good sound one as he deserved. 
For seven years after he attempted to shoot his queen, 
none of her subjects tried it until 1849, when we shall 
hear of another attemx)t. 

A bright relief to the situation of the Queen and 
court after Bean's attempt, was tlie arrival in England 
of Prince Ernest and his bride, about ten days after that 
event. To the safe and charming retreat Ciaremont, the 
Queen and her husband carried the bridal pair, for a 
portion of tbeir visit where life could be enjoyed tran- 
quilly in this favorite resort of royalty. To her uncle 
Leopold she once wrote from there: "This place has a 
particular charm for us both, and to me it brings back 
reccollections of the happiest days of my otherAvise dull 
childhood, when I experienced such kindness from you, 
dearest uncle, kindness which has ever since continued. 
Victoria (the Princess royal) plays with my old bricks, 
and I see her running and jumping in the flower garden 
as old, tho I fear still little, Victoria of former days used 
to do." 

August 11th, 1842, the Queen made the closing speech 
in Parliament when she prorogued it, expressing her 
confidence in everything being done in the interest of 
" good order and submission to the law, without ^hich 
there could be no enjoyment of the fruits of peaceful in- 



122 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

dustry, and no advance in tlie course of social improve- 
ment," a confidence not at all realized, since immediately 
afterwards the troops had to be called out to subdue the 
people in several portions of England, who had broken 
out in open riot. In the West of Scotland the people 
were also in wild tumult on the score of hard times and 
low wages. 



OHAPTEE Xy. 



TROUBLE WITH THE AF&HANS— ENOLISH AND AFOHAN 
SITUATION— DILEMMA FORCED UPON SIR ALEXANDER 
BURNS — ALTERED DESPATCHES — MASSACRE OF THE 
BRITISH FORCES AT CABUL— FETES AND FESTIVALS IN- 
STITUTED BY THE QUEEN — THE QUEEN AND COURT IN 
COSTUME— THE PEEL MINISTRY DISMAYED AND ENGLAND 
APPALLED. 

The massacre of the British forces at Cabul was, the 
Duke of Wellington told the Queen, " the first calamity 
that had befallen England in arms since 1780. " 

It was a prodigious calamity, and one for which the 
responsibility must have rested somewhere that ought 
to have been reckoned for. 

The statement has been often made and repeated that 
Prince Albert, since his marriage with tbe Queen, had 
been kept completely informed as to the nature of for- 
eign affairs, and that all despatches on that subject were 
communicated to him. 

Judging, however, from the high character which he 
won for probity in all things, it is natural to infer that 
all tbe despatches from Afghanistan were not received 
by him, or if they were, that some of them must have 
been altered from the original text before they fell under 
his eye at this time, 

123 



124 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

Charges were made tliat the despatches had been tam- 
X^ered with, and that would seem likely, considering' that 
Sir Alexander Burns was represented to have recommen- 
ded measures that he must have protested against, since 
to have done otherwise would have been to deliberately 
arrange for the sacrifice of his own life and the lives of 
the Englishmen with him, as afterwards came to i)ass. 

ibul had long been a point of much importance. It 
was, so to speak, the gatewaj^ to India from Persia, hence 
the saying, " that no one could be King of Hindostan 
without first becoming Lord of Cabul." 

In 1836, the year before Queen Victoria came to the 
throne. Dost Mohammed was the reigning i:>ower at Oabul. 
He was a man of much ability, and although lie was a 
usurper, he was beloved by his people, who put the 
greatest trust in him. 

The empire had been founded by Ahmed Shah. It 
extended south to the mouths of the Indus and to 
the Arabian sea, north from Oxus and Cashmere, 
and from Shirhend on the east to Herat on the 
west. When England went to war with Afghanistan, 
the latter x)rincipality (Herat) was all that remained to 
the descendants of Ahmed Shah, Dost Mohammed and 
his brothers having wrested from them all the remainder 
which they held. 

Eunjeet Singh had taken up the province of Cashmere 
and annexed it to his own dominions. He was an ally of 
England and a bitter foe of Dost Mohammed, whom he 
was then menacing. The Shah of Persia and the ruler 
of Herat were at variance, and it was the belief of the 
English Government that Persia was playing into the 
hands of Russia, and tbat an assault upon Herat was 
only a preliminary stej) towards gaining dominion in 
India by the Russians, Dost Mohammed, the powerful 
ruler of Cabul, was being conciliated by both Russia and 
England. On behalf of England Sir Alexander Burns 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 125 

Lad won marked favor. Dost Moliammed desired to be 
ail ally of Eiigiaiid, and lie offered to Bums to dismiss 
without eveu an audience, the Russian envoy, if lie could 
be assured of the friendship of Eugland; but an alliance 
with either power he must have, for the purpose of 
strengthening his hands against Runjeet Singh, 

A strong attachment existed between Dosfc Mohammed 
and Burns. In him the English Envoy had implicit 
faith; while for some reason (perhaps through the repre- 
sentations of Runjeet Singh, his enemy), the Peel 
Government profoundly distrusted him, and Burns was 
ordered to regard him as an enem}^ who was treacherously 
favoring Persia and through her Russia. In this delem- 
ma the luckless envoy was obliged to carry out a policy 
from which he differed m toto, and which afterwards cost 
him his life, together with thousands of others. 

Whilst Burns was laboring with all his might to con- 
vince his government of Dost Mohammed's sincerity to- 
wards the English people, a treaty was entered into 
with Runjeet Singh, to dethrone him and to set up in his 
place Soojah-ool-Moolk, under the i^retense that he was 
the legitimate rnler, as he Avas a descendant of Ahmed 
Shah, the original founder of the Empire. The new 
potentate was an unambitious, dull sort of person, fished 
out from some obscure corner to fill the place made for 
him. In about the same fashion as Napoleon III. seated 
Maximilian of Austria upon the throne of the Montezu- 
mas, so entered into Cabul, Soojah-ool-Moolk, supported 
by British troops; and like Maximilian, when deserted 
by the power that upheld him, a bloody grave soon re- 
ceived him. 

It seemed entirely beyond the calculation of the 
English Government that Dost Mohammed would dare 
resist their action. All the troops save about four 
thousand under the command of JMajor General Elphing- 
stone, were withdrawn Irom Cabul, and these were re- 



126 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

garded merely as precautionary rather tliau as a necessity 
there. Soon, however, a change came over the aspect of 
affairs. A son of Dost Mohammed, (Akbar Kahn) ap- 
peared ni)on the scene. He led the people in rebellion, 
and they broke out into open insurrection against the 
ruler imi)osed upon them by the English. A convenient 
ditch received the body (stripped of jewels and other 
trappings) of Soojah-ool-Moolk; and Sir Alexander 
Burns, who rushed among the populace at the beginning 
of the tumult was hacked to pieces by Afghan knives 
while endeavoring to talk of pacific measures. At the 
time of his death x>oor Burns was thirty-six years of age; 
and though he was the first, he was by no means the last 
victim of a policy adopted against his strenuous x)rotest- 
ations and most x^ositive objections. 

Sir Walter MclSTaghten and his officers were next mur- 
dered. The Euglish were routed from their cantone- 
ments and were obliged to surrender and agree to leave 
Afghanistan immediately, leaving behind all their treas- 
ure, and also agreeing to have Dost Mohammed and his 
family returned without delay to Oabul. For the per- 
formance of these obligations six of the i)rincipal officers 
were retained as hostages in the hands of the Afghans, 
and the whole of the English forces, swelled by camp 
followers to twelve thousand, began, in the very depths 
of a rigorous winter, their march for Jellalabad. Officers 
wives and children were with the English army. One^ 
officer's wife had seven childreu with her, and tlie widow 
of Sir Walter MclJ^aghten, lately slain by Akbar Khan, 
was obliged to travel under the escort of her husband's 
murderer. Soon he demanded that the women and 
children should be delivered to him as hostages too; 
only six guns were allowed the whole British forces to 
protect themselves with on the march, so that resistance 
to the demand, if dreamed of, was abandoned, and the 
Afghan Prince had his way. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEI^. 127 

The marcli from Oabiil to Jellalabad led tlirougii fear- 
ful passes. The Afghans rushed ui)on the English and 
stabbed them with their long knives, pursuing them 
from* place to i)lace, till tlie snow over which they 
traveled seemed a pathway stained with blood. Of the 
whole twelve thousand who left Cabul, onl^^ oue solitary 
man reached Jellalabad to tell the tale of horrors of that 
hideous journey, wliich when told in England caused a 
thrill of horror. TLe situation proved an ambush for the 
British forces, resulting from the action of the British 
Government. Burns had not only been forced into the 
devious course of action which ended in the carnage, 
while he was protesting against it; but the very move- 
ment which he tried most earnestl}' to resist was set 
forth as one of his devisement, a measure advised by 
him and specially entered into npon his rex^resentations. 

The Peel Ministrj^ were hard pushed both at home and 
abroad. The great revenue demanded from the i)eople 
on the very verge of a national bankrui)tcy for the pur- 
pose of carrying on this war against the Afghans, and 
the frightful termination of it were not encouraging- 
subjects for the ministry to present to a distressed and 
disturbed country. At any rate Sir Alexander Burns's 
despatches were presented to the House of Commons by 
the Government in a form that made him to appear as 
commending the policy which he i:)articularl3^ warned 
them against; and it was made to seem that Burns's own 
hand had pointed the knife to his own heart and to that 
of his companions in misery caught in a trap and killed 
like rats in a hole. 

Upon the very day that Sir Eobert Peel was elo- 
quently urging in the House of Commons the passage of 
the Income Tax Bill, the news one day old of the annihi- 
lation of the English forces at Cabul was in his knowl- 
edge. He knew that, in addition to the murder of the 
men, English women and children were in the hands and 



128 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

at the mercy of savages infuriated by a seuse of wrong 
for wliich bis Government was directly responsible, and 
that tbose defenceless creatures were exi)osed to a fate 
to which death itself was mercy. It is said " his heart 
was heavy," as it well might be at these tidings; and 
the Queen and the Priuce were later giving themselves 
an encouraging a series of " concerts, dinners, and balls 
for the x>rirx)ose of giving a stimulus to trade in London." 

It is good to have to tell in this cliapter of horrors, 
that the women and children left behind in Cabul were 
restored afterwards to their friends uninjured, save in 
the suffering incipient to the situation through which 
they passed. Akbar Kahn protected them honorably 
from such a fate as English women suffered during the 
Sepoy War. He killed with his own hand Sir AV alter 
Mcl^raghten, and afterwards told his widow that he 
" would have given his right hand to undo that deed." 
There was generosity in his nature as well as natural 
ferocity, and he had been provoked exceedingly. Hav- 
ing shared with his father, Dost Mohammed, his faith in 
and his love for Sir Alexander Burns, which was fol- 
lowed by the ruin of their family by England whom 
Burns represented, he had entered into a secret treaty 
with Mcl^aghten. This finally took the shape of the be- 
trayal of all the other Afghan chiefs into the hands of 
Akbar Kahn, proposed by him, and consented to by the 
English commander. 

That, in his estimation, proved the treacherous charac- 
ter of Mc^aghten. The Afghan Prince was but trying 
him when he made the proposition, and he had invited 
him to a lonely situation for the ostensible purpose of 
having the consultation secret. Akbar Kahn was sur- 
rounded by chiefs of his nation, McNaghten had with 
him but one or two English officers. The moment he 
acceded to the whispered proposition of the Afghan, 
Akbar killed him; and the offlcers with him were also 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 129 

dispatched, after which the body of the English com- 
mander was dragged through the streets and exposed iu 
the great Bazaar of Oabul, with every circumstance of 
indignity possible to surround it. 

ISIot for a month or so after the Peel Government were 
aware of this disaster did the general public become ap- 
prised of it, and then they knew it in the form kindly 
permitted by the ministry. 



CHAPTER XVI- 



PRINCE ALBERT'S BROTHER COMES TO SPEND HIS 
HONEYMOON IN ENOLAND— DEATH OF THE DUKE OF 
ORLEANS— THE QUEEN'S FIRST VISIT TO SCOTLAND— EN- 
THUSIASTIC WELCOME FROM THE SCOTS TO THEIR 
SOVEREIGN— QUEEN VICTORIA IN HOLYROOD PALACE — 
ROOMS IN HOLYROOD ONCE OCCUPIED BY MARY QUEEN 
OF SCOTS— ROOM IN WHICH QUEEN MARY'S SON WAS 
BORN IN EDINBURGH CASTLE— THE QUEEN'S RETURN 
TO ENGLAND— SOME COMPLICATIONS ACCOMMODATED — 
HOSTILITY TO PRINCE ALBERT - BIRTH OF THE PRINCESS 
ALICE — REFORM IN THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. 

The honeymoon visit of Prince Ernest of Saxe-Cobnrg 
and his bride to the Queen and Prince at Olaremont was 
saddened for the bridal pair and their royal hostess; first 
by the situation of affairs in England, and then by the 
news which they received at that time of the death of 
the Duke of Orleans, who had been killed while jumping 
from a carriage that had been run away with while he 
was riding in it. 

The Duke of Orleans was the son of Louis Philippe 
and the favorite brother of the Queen of the Belgians, 
with whom the royal family of England and Ooburg 
sympathised in the calamity that had befallen her. 



FIFTI YEARS A QUEEN. 131 

The Queeu wrote to her uncle, Kiug Leopold; "I can 
easily imagine your horror and astonishment. My poor 
dearest Louise, how my heart bleeds for ber !" In return, 
Kind Leopold wrote the Queen of England that the 
grief of his wife, when she knew that it was the Duke of 
Orleans she Lad lost, was astounding, as she felt that 
with him the star of her family had set, as indeed i^roved 
to be true. 

A visit to tlie Belgian capital and a meeting with 
some members of the royal family of France had been 
contemplated this year by the Queen and Prince, which 
this circumstance decided them to abandon, and instead 
tliey arranged to go to Scotland. 

This was her Majesty's first visit to that part of her 
dominions, where once reigned her lovely ancestress, 
Mary Queen of Scots, wheu she was as j-oung as Victoria 
was now, and far more beautiful of form and face. 

The whole heart of Scotland was roused in enthusiastic 
welcome of its Queen. The clannishness attributed to 
the people of that country had manifestation in tlie 
liurrying of the great southern Lords and Highland 
Chiefs with their followers to greet their Sovereign, who 
was the linealdecendantof the old race of Scottish Kings 
— the royal Stuarts. "The heart of the nation Avas stirred 
to its depths," Prince Albert wrote," and those who were 
accustomed to think of its people as cold and undemon- 
strative, must have seen with surprise the passionate 
ardor with which their devotion to their young Queen 
Avas exi)ressed." 

In addition to this very warm welcome of the Scotcli 
people, grateful to the Queen, the bracing air of the 
Scottish hills, blooming with heather, and the highland 
scenery, grand ami wild, formed extremely pleasing 
features to lier Majesty and the Prince. 

They visited Lochleven Castle, where Mary had once 
been a prisoner under the stern guardian shij) of Lady 



ISH FIFTY YEARS A t^UEEJ^-. 

Douglas — the mother of Queeu Mary's lialf-brother,tlie 
Begeiit Miirniy — aud out of wliicb, tlirougli the kiud 
offices of George Douglas, she was helped to make her 
way to her "good sister Elizabeth," who hually disposed 
of her. The^' visited Scone, from whence came the his- 
torical old coronation stone which Victoria saw on her 
coronation day, resplendent in its covering of crimson 
and cloth of gold — a relic of old Scottish kings who were 
monarchs of Scotland nges before the Stnarts began to 
reign there. The3' visited Sterling and its strongholds; 
also Linlithgow aud Drummond Castle among other 
interesting i)laces. 

A million of people gathered in Edinburgh to see 
George lY. land there on his first visit to that city about 
twenty years before the visit of Queen Victoria, and Sir 
Walter Scott, one of those wlio received him, wrote for 
the occassion : 

'' The news has flown frae mou^h to mouth, 
The North for ance has bang'd tlie South; 
The dell a Scotinan's die o' drouth, 

Carl, now the Khig's come !" 

It was the Queen that had now come, and vast were the 
preparations made to receive her. A million of i)eople 
might have been there to welcome her too, as they did 
her uncle George,only that she came so early in the morn- 
ing, that the people, who did not then expect her, were 
for the most part fast asleep as she stole into Edin- 
bnrgh. The wildly passionate welcome was not wanting, 
however. When their Queen showed herself to the 
peox^le in a x)rogress which she made through the cit3', 
the demonstration of joy of her subjects w^as full and 
satisfactory. 

Holyrood Abbey and Palace greatly interested the 
young Queen, especially, it may be imagined, that portion 
of the i)alace that had formed tlie residence of Queen 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 133 

Mary, more tliau two hundred and fifty years before. She 
had not been as happy here as the beloved wife of Prince 
Albert was now; but had Darnley been as loyal and lov- 
ing to Mary as Albert to Victoria, the fortunes and 
history of Mary might have been entirely different; for, 
as some one said, "it is all in all to a woman to have lier 
heart mellowed in love's sunshine." 

Here in Holyrood happy Queen Victoria looked upon 
patheticrelicsof unhappy Queen Mary. Her bed, with 
the dust of centuries on its faded hangings; the dressing- 
room where toilet articles of hers were preserved; the 
presence chamber with its carved oak roof embellished 
with ciphers of kings and queens— their mutual ancestors; 
and the little room where Mary sat at supper with her 
four Marys when Rizzio was killed before her eyes, 
his blood pouring over her hands and dress. 

When George IV. was in Edinburgh in 1822, he held 
court in the long room in the modernized portion of Holy- 
rood Palace— that in which the election of Scottish Peers 
of the House of Lords takes place. Contiguous to this a 
suite of rooms was fitted ui) for the Queen's use, and they 
were made as splendid as possible that the Queen might 
be suitably lodged in the ancient palace of her ancestors. 

One room in the Castle of Edinburgh must, more than 
any other, have moved the heart of the young Queen — 
happy in her wife and motherhood — the little room, light- 
ed by a solitary window^ with an outlook on the frowning 
rocks seventy feet below, where Mary gave birth to her son 
James, June 19, 1566, about two months after tlie horror 
of Kizzio's murder in her presence. To this room Darn- 
ley came to see his wife and child after the birth of tlie 
latter, Mary saying as she showed him their baby, "My 
Lord, God has given us a fair son; but had not the 
murderous sword of Euthven been warded from my 
bosom that night, where would he and 1 be now." 



134 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEIf. 

At the time tluit Mary was pro;^)onn(ling that question 
to her " lord" (who had led Euthven and the other as- 
sassins to her presence to commit the murder) she was 
about the age of Victoria on her first visit to Scotland, 
twenty-three years. 

In such trials Queen Victoria hadl)eside her a husband 
whose "care and devotion were quite beyond expression. " 
Here she must surely have considered the young Avife 
and mother, who was a queen, yet so pitifully alone and 
wretched at such a time ! Surely she did recall the 
situation, and sympathize with the forlorn woman who so 
suffered. On several occasions Queen Victoria ex- 
X)ressed her pride that Mary Avas her ancestress. She 
told Sir Archibald Alison " she was glad she was de- 
scended from Mary, and had nothing to do with Eliza- 
beth." 

Their trip to Scotland was one gratifying in many re- 
spects to the Queen and Prince. They returned to 
England with health and spirits mucli improved, and 
were cheered by the intelligence there awaiting them. 

Cabul and Ghuznee had been conquered by the British 
forces, and Akbar Kahn and his army had been totally 
routed. The Crown and the Government were much 
elated by this condition of things. The present triumph 
covered the past disaster to an extent that almost oblit- 
erated it; and, save by the immediate friends of those 
slain in the passes of Afghanistan, who held them in 
memory and mourned their fate, it was rapidly forgotten. 

Lord Auckland had been Governor-General of India 
during the trouble at Cabul, and had sustained by proc- 
lamation the succession of Soojah-ool-Moolk to the throne 
from which Dost Mohammed had been driven. Lord 
Auckland was succeeded by Lord EUenborough, who 
was now revoking the policy of his luckless predecessor, 
which was declared to be an utter failure. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN". 135 

A proclamation issued by tlie new Goveruor-Genernl 
(Lord Elleiihorongli) set forth tbat, "to force a sovereign 
upon a reluctant people would be as inconsistent with 
the policj^ as it was svith the principles of the British 
Government; and therefore he would recognize any 
g-overnment apjiroved by the Afghans themselves, and 
that the Government of India would be content with the 
limit nature appeared to have assigned to its emj)ire." 

The pleasing intelligence of a peace concluded with 
China followed speedily upon that of the re-conquest of 
Afghanistan. In the case of China the news was en- 
hanced by the terms npon which it was concluded — 
" idemnification for expenses of the war, a favorable 
tariff, and an open trade with five of the principal Chinese 
ports. " 

On the opening of Parliament, February 2nd, 1843, the 
condition of the Queen prevented her presence at that 
ceremony. It would have been a pleasing duty to her 
to inform Parliament of the settlement, not only of the 
dif&culties with China and India, but also of those with 
the United States, which the " Ashburton Treaty" had 
composed. 

So much good news did not, however, create harmony 
in that august body, as Mr. Cobden directly charged Sir 
Kobert Peel with being responsible ])ersonally for the 
dangerous state in which the country was; and Prince 
Albert was writing Baron Stockmar six days after the 
opening of Parliament that " the |)arty-men were already 
firing broadsides into each other." 

Less than a month had ela])sed since Sir Robert PeePs 
secretary had been shot and killed. He had been mis- 
taken for Peel, and that gentleman therefore severely 
censured Mr. Cobden for ntterances that might induce 
other attacks upon his life. The wife of Sir Eobert fell 
ill in consequence of concern for her husband; and the 
Queen, heartily sympathizing with the man whom she 



136 FIB'TY YEARS A QUUlSrf. 

had learned to like — liaviug the stronger feeling perhaps 
of one who could appreciate from experience the horror 
of being shot at— expressed tlie hope that" it might have 
the beneficial effect of making people feel the difference 
between complete madness, which deprives a man of all 
sense, and madness which does not prevent a man from 
knowing right from wrong." The man, however (Mc- 
Naghten), was acquitted on the ground of insanity, 
although it was known that he had deliberately planned 
the murder of Peel, whose secretary (Drummond) he had 
mistaken for him and killed. 

According to custom, numerous levees and drawing- 
rooms were held, from which, however, the Queen was 
obliged to be absent. It was a grievance to certain i)or- 
tions of the royal family that the Prince appeared in her 
stead to receive; and the malcontents absented them- 
selves, resolved not to encourage a " presumptuous 
foreigner." The poor old Duke of Sussex never could 
bear to see " the younger son of the ^Duke of Coburg " 
taking on authority in England. That always put him 
in a passion, and although he was very nearly done with 
England and its honors and precedences, he was at this 
time leading the dissatisfied ones. 

Buckingham Palace was again a scene of interest on the 
morning of April 25th, 1843, when another princess was 
born there; and as she Avas born on " aunt Gloucester's 
birthday," she was called Alice Maud Mary, the latter 
name after the Duchess of Gloucester. Her sponsors 
were the King of Hanover, Prince Ernest of Ooburg, the 
Princess Sophia Matilda, and the Queen's sister Feodore. 
As usual her Majesty made a speedy recoverj^, and she 
reports the baby's conduct at her christening to her 
uncle Leopold: " Little Alice behaved extremely well, 
and all went off' brilliantly." 

The housekeeping in the palaces had long been a can- 
kering care in the mind of methodical order-loving 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. I3l 

Prince Albert. The reigu of disorder and extravagance 
there established through custom and maintained 
through the agenc^^ of i)ersons interested, had been 
talked over time and again with bis close confidiints, 
"uncle Leopold" and the good old Baron Stocliniar, 
order-loving, methodical, and economical as himself. 
On the subject of that housekeeping they bad a com- 
munity of feeling, and many were the devices considered 
as to how the besom of order might be there introduced 
without touching any of the old forms planted by tradi- 
tion upon which the sacred structure rested, and bringing 
down upon their beads the denunciation of the lords of 
misrule who had it in charge, and who might be backed 
by the whole nation did they notice any innovation in 
one of their old customs handed down from generation to 
generation. 

The Ooburgs appear to have been as faithful to tradi- 
tions in their way as were the English in their's; and 
that they formed enduring attachments for those who 
served them is proved by the number of persons retained 
in their service from youth to age. 

The Baroness Lehzen came into the service of the 
Duchess of Kent as governess to her eldest daughter, 
the Princess Feodore, before the birth of her youngest 
daughter the queen. She was the governess of the 
Princess Victoria; remained in the household of the 
Duchess of Kent until the Princess's accession to the 
crown, when she became one of the royal household and 
continued to be the director of her Majesty's Privy 
Purse until Prince Albert carried out his long contem- 
plated change in the household. So it was in the case 
of Carte and others. Carte became the Prince's valet 
when the Prince was a boy, and he came to England with 
him in the same capacity, remaining in his service until 
he died. 



138 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN". 

When Prince Leopold had been the husband of the 
Princess Charlotte, and destined to a position similar to 
that now occui^ied by Prince Albert, the Baron Stock- 
mar had been his fidus Achates^ with whom he had con- 
sidered every point in the situation; and when the 
uncle's star of hope set in the death of the future queen, 
and that of his nephew rose in becoming the husband of 
the present queen, all the knowledge in his experience, 
as well as his good services, he transferred to Prince 
Albert. 

Under tlie uncle's guidance, and somewhat under 
Stockmar's, the Prince had been trained from boyhood 
to be the husband of the queeu, and to conduct the 
affairs of her and their future children's kingdom with 
the same method, and upon the same inflexible x)rinci- 
ples that Leopold would have done had he been in the 
I)lace of Albert; and as both were of the same order of 
man — almost identical in tastes, habits, and acquire- 
ments — the task of modelling the young prince after the 
pattern of the elder was entirely successful. 

Two such mentors, so well-informed on all points,were 
of incalculable benefit to the Prince and to the Queen 
whom he guided. Temperate in all things and exceed- 
ingly polite, '"'' festi7ia lenie " had been their motto. They 
knew how to wait, and when to take the advantage of 
circumstances— elements of success which the Prince 
too became familiar with. 

The astute Baron had long considered all the points 
embraced in the question of the household. In the 
words of Sir Theodore Martin, " he knew England and 
its ways too well not to be sensible of the dauger of any 
inuovittions either upon the dignity of offices so highly 
prized, or upon usages, however inconvenient or extrav- 
agant, which had the sanction of time at their back." 
Still, by perseverance and deft handling of the British 
lion, the creature was managed so skillfully as to allow 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 139 

order to take tbe place of disorder in tlie lioiisebold; and 
Prince Albert took the place of head of the estab- 
lishmeut, and under his steady rule all went well. 

In whatever he undertook the Qneen supported him 
with all her heart. She yielded him obedience as well 
as fervent wifely love. As she told him when she asked 
liim to marry her," be had won her whole heart;" and be 
held her affection wholly and without diminution. Her 
more impetuous disposition bad yielded to his evenly 
balanced one. Through her great love and respect for 
him she had been won completely; and at his sugges- 
tion tbe grave affairs of national importance which, with 
her heritage— tbe throne— came into the bands of tbe 
young Queen, were considered by her carefully and im- 
partially, without special party bias, from which be held 
himself scrupulously free. 

In less than a year Prince Leopold had won over merry 
romp-loving Princess Charlotte to a degree of dignified 
propriety that she had adopted for his sake. Merry 
dance-loving and pleasure-loving Victoria bad turned 
her face from many of the gaieties upon which her heart 
used to be set for the sake of her "dear master," so 
much power had these men over the women whose hearts 
they possessed entirely— a power happily employed for 
good under every circumstance. 



CHAPTER XYII. 



QUEEN YICTORIA'S PIRST VISIT TO THE KING OF THE 
rHENCH AT THE CHATEAXT d'EU— THE PRENCH ROYAL 
FAMILY REOEIYETHE QUEEN A.ND PRINCE AT TREPORT — 
THE QUEEN AND PRINCE IN BELGIUM— "POOR CARLOTTA" 
— THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA ON A YISIT TO THE QUEEN — 
PECULIARITIES OF THE CZAR— THE KING OF SAXONY AT 
THE COURT OF ENGLAND— ROYAL VICISSITUDES - JEAL- 
OUSY OF KINGS AND NATIONS— INCIDENTS OF THE RUS- 
SIAN EMPEROR'S VISIT TO ENGLAND— DEATH OF THE 
DUKE OF COBURG— A ROYAL LOVE LETTER. 

The Queen i)rorogiied Parliament, Aiig-iist 2Ttli, 1843, 
and on the day following sailed with tlie Prince in her 
new yacht Victoria mid Albert. Her destination was 
Treport, where she was to pay Louise Pliilippe a visit. 

The family of Cohurg and that of Orleans had fre- 
quently intermarried. Louise of Orleans was the sec- 
ond wife of the Queen's favorite uncle, King Leopold of 
Belgium. This marriage had taken i)lace eight years 
previous to her own with Prince Albert, and three other 
unions since that time had taken place, drawing the 
members of those royal houses closer together. King 
Louis Philippe, when Duke of Orleans, had made 
friendly visits to England, and had been closely asso- 
ciated Avitli members of the Queen of England's family. 
140 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJf. 141 

Therefore it was uot with the feeling of a stranger that 
her Majest}' of England set out for a visit to Lis Majesty 
of France, although the proceeding was one for which 
there was then no precedent. 

The King of the French and family were at the Cba- 
teau d'Eii, near Treport, within a few liours sail of South- 
ampton, where the Queen and her husband embarked, 
August 28th, to cruise for a few days along the beauti- 
ful coasts of Devon and tlie Isle of Wiglit, and then to 
cross to Treport. This place they readied on September 
2nd, and they were received by the King of the Fiench, 
who was there awaiting them iu his yacht with the Dukes 
d'Aumale and Montpensier and other distinguished per- 
sons. 

To render the feeling of the royal guests more home- 
like. Prince Augustus of Saxe-Ooburg-Gotha was one of 
the receiving party. He was a first-cousin of the Queen 
and Prince, and was the husband of Clementine of Or- 
leans. The barge of Louis Philippe, "gay with decora- 
tion and made still more i^icturesque by many rowers in 
white with red sashes and red ribbons floating from their 
hats," had barely touched the English royal yacht, 
before his majesty was aboard of it, embracing the 
Sovereign of England and exx)ressing his pleasure in 
welcoming her on French soil. 

Under the ro^^al standards of France and England the 
royal party made tlie shore in tiie French barge, where 
the Queen of the French received them amid shouts of 
*' Vive la Reine " and Yive le BoV from the i)eople. 

With ^.Le French Queen were "dearest Louise," Queen 
Victoria's aunt of Belgium, Clementine, the wife of her 
cousin Augustus, Helene, the Duchess of Orleans, who 
was in deep mourning for her husband, lately kille<l, 
Madame Adelaide, and the Prince of Joinville. 

This visit of five days was one of vast pleasure to 
Queen Victoria. Wheu she arose on Sunday morning, 



142 FIFT3: YEARS A QUEEN. 

" slie felt," she said, " that it was like a dream, that sLe 
was liere on French soil, her favorite air-castle of so 
many years realized." In her pleasure-loving heart 
there was a spot that responded quickl}^ to things enjoy- 
able, and here the novel gaiety of her surroundings 
pleased her. 

"The church bells i^ealed more sweetly in her ears 
than those of England, and the people iu Sunday garb 
Avere much more picturesque." On all tlie beautiful 
drives the i3eox)le saluted her witii" Vive la Heine de VAng- 
leterre,'''' and — no one shot her ! Her heart was joyful at 
the release from State cares, questions of precedence, 
oppositions, and court factions. Her " dearest precious 
husband " was i^raised and admired by every oue, and 
was enjoying himself Avith the zest of a scliool-boy set 
free from his studies, which were causes in her feeling, 
with this delightful French family, that she "was one of 
them." 

Two of the magnificent pieces of Gobelin tapestries in 
the Oak Eoom now at Windsor Castle were presents 
from the King of the French at that time. They were 
the result of thirty years of hand labor; and with these 
the King also presented her Majesty witlia box of ex- 
quisite Sevres china which she also preserves. 

" Dear Helene," the Duchess of Orleans, after wliom 
Victoria afterwards named a daughter of her own (the 
Princess Christian), " brought," the Queen said, " little 
Paris " to visit her. She praised the courage of this 
duchess, who was " a pale fragile lady," and who j)roved 
that courage afterwards in facing a mob of French 
insurgents, her boy in her hand — the only oue of the 
Orleans family who li ad dared aught else than get out 
of France as fast and as secretly as possible. 

Perhaps "little Paris " inherited the courage of his 
mother. At any rate, when he could find no fighting to 
do for France in after years, he came over to lig-it iu 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 143 

America for the preservation of her Union, so that 
France and all the world might have a grand republic to 
pattern after. 

The two queens, of the French and of Eu gland, gos- 
siped about their babies as mothers love to do. " I 
showed the miniatures of Puss and the boy to the Queen 
of France," says her Majesty of England, " which she 
admired extremely. " 

After five delightful days this visit came to an end. 
The Queen of England said, "I felt so sad to go." The 
moruiug of departure was a lovely one. The streets 
were thronged with people. The remarkable gathering 
of three Queens — the Queen of the French, of Belgium, 
and of England— attended by other royal persons, accom- 
I)anied the latter to the French royal barge that was 
to convey her Majesty and the Prince to their yacht. 
"The sad moment arrived, and adieus were said." The 
English Queen was on her way homeward. 

Five short years from this time the royal family of 
France were to visit the Queen uuder very different cir- 
cnmstances. Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and his 
wife Clementine of Orleans, the Due de "N^emours, all in 
fact save the Queen of the Belgiaus, " came one day 
like shipwrecked people " into England. The King 
and Queen of the French were then "Mr. and Mrs. John 
Smith " until they threw aside their disguises and were 
sheltered under the friendly wing of England, very 
much demoralized royalties indeed. They were terribly 
frightened by the revolution that swept royalty out 
of France, and were very thankful to have escaped from 
it with their heads still on their shoulders. 

At Brighton " Puss and the boy " were found by their 
royal parents, who proposed to make a few day^s stay 
there before going to Belgium on a visit. After making 
arrangements for their children's care in their absence. 



X44 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJS". 

The Queeu aud her husband left for Ostend on their way 
to Belgium. 

That country broke out into unusual demonstrations 
of rejoicing on the arrival of her Majesty and Prince 
Albert. Brussels put on its most festive aspect, decor- 
ating all the streets and illuminating the houses. The 
peoide everywhere greeted the Queen and Prince with 
cordial Avarmtli. " Uncle and Aunt " were, the -Queen 
said, "greatly delighted at the visit; and little Charlotte 
quite the prettiest child you ever saw." This was "i)Oor 
Oarlotta," the blooming child cradled in the purple, with 
a fate so wretched awaiting her in the coming time. 

Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerx^ were visited, and the 
royal pair were everywhere warmly welcomed by the 
X)eople. On regaining her yacht for the homeward trip, 
Queen Victoria wrote her uncle, expressing her pleasure 
at lier visit to his kingdom, adding, " it was such a joy 
to me to be once more under the roof of one who has 
ever been a father to me." 

This visit, it Avas thought, was instrumental in at- 
taching the Belgians more to their King. It woke 
their enthusiasm, on the warmth of Avhich they drew 
closer to their own sovereign — a matter of rejoicing to 
himself and to the Queen his niece, who sincerely loved 
him. 

Monarchs of other countries than France and Belgium 
that had not been A^isited by the Queen now began to 
grumble and to whisper suspicions of political signifi- 
cance in those just made, particularly that of France. 

Numerous kingly Aasits had been paid to England 
since it had come under the reign of the young queen. 
The tidings now reached her that the Czar of all the 
llussias contemplated honoring England with his pres- 
ence, Avhich was not by any means agreeable news to the 
Queen. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 145 

This great Emperor Nicholas was not a man much 
^iven to formalities, nor did he generally give much time 
to prepare for his coming when once he decided to come. 
It was not his habit to enquire Avhether a visit from him 
would be agreeable; he simply consulted his own incli- 
nations and acted accordingly. 

In his case there was no need to air the best bed, tis 
after a fashion x)eculiarly his own, he carried about with 
him, " a long leather bag which he had stuffed with hay 
from the stables" where he chanced to be, and this in- 
variably served as the imperial couch. 

The Queen had not much time to worry over the 
threatened visit. The dreaded guest followed close on 
announcement of it, after having first (the better to com- 
l>licate matters) given out that he should not come to 
England before the following year. 

The Czar arrived in London early in June, and was 
conducted by Prince Albert to Buckingham Palace, 
where her Majesty received him. 

Very agreeably, the Queen did not find him nearly as 
formidable as she had supposed she should. " The 
burden of his power and x>osition, " she thought, 
" weighed heavily and painfully upon him. " " He was 
not happy and seldom, smiled. " 

He, however, greatly admired the Queen's husband^, 
and fondled her children, circumstances that probably 
induced a different view from that of Lady Lyttleton, 
who said, "he has x)ale eyelashes, and his enormous and 
very brilliant eyes have no shade; besides which they 
have the awful look given by occasional glimpses of 
white above the eyeball, which comes from his father 
Paul, I suppose, and gives a savage wildness for a 
moment pretty often. " To the Queen he appeared " a 
very striking man, still very handsome; his i^rofile hesi4 
tiful, and his manners dignified and graceful; extremely 
civil, quite alarmingly so, as he is so full of attentions 



146 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEIS". 

and politenesses." The Russian Emperor told the Queen 
very frankly that "it was an excellent thing to see now 
and then with one's own eyes, as it did not do always to 
trust to dii^lomatists only. " Evidentlj^ it was by this 
principle that he was actuated in coming to England at 
this time. He wished to judge for himself what that 
French visit might mean, and he had besides an abiding 
faith in i^resence and speech, which were far more potent 
in his estimation than "messages and letters." 

To the young Queen, gallant nnin that he was, he x>re- 
ferred to make compliments rather than talk i^olitics; 
though he looked carefully and closely into the political 
situation, and exchanged views ui^on it with Prince Al- 
bert, Lord Aberdeen, and Sir Robert Peel. There was a 
growl of the " Russian bear " in his declaration to Peel, 
" that he did not covet one inch of Turkish soil for him- 
self, but that neither would he allow any one else to 
have one; " to Ayhicli the English Premier answered, 
" that England had but one thing to keep in view, which 
was, that there should be no government in Egypt too 
l)owerful to close the passage across that country to its 
commerce or its mails." 

As to English views with regard to France, the Em- 
X^eror also learned that it was the intention of England 
"to see that the throne of that kingdom descended 
without convulsion to the next legitimate heir of the 
Orleans dynasty when Louis Philippe died, "which, how- 
ever, England did not do. Louis Philipi:)e died a half-a- 
dozen years after that time at Claremont, and England 
did not see seated on the throne of France one of the 
Orleans dynasty. 

In fact, when the Queen of England visited France 
some years afterwards, it was to do honor to her " good 
brother " Louis ]S'ai)oleon, who had been doing duty as a. 
special constable in London when " Mr. and Mrs. John 
Smith " arrived there in 1848, flying from France, where 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 147 

they liad been king and queen, before the "convulsion " 
of that year, which England had not the power to hinder. 

Strange changes indeed, imssing strange, a few years 
worked in the condition of the royal people of Europe. 
The Eussian Emperor had first visited England in 1816, 
iu the train of his elder brother Alexander, the then 
Czar. He was then one of tlie allies rejoicing over the 
fall of the first Napoleon, whom they had conquered. 
Until the present time, he had not seen England again, 
when in his concern as to what Louis Phiiii)i)e might be 
about, he was looking into the state of things. Windsor 
Castle, the most splendid palace in England, he admired. 
The magniticent guest-rooms of tiiat palace lodged him 
royally. Precisely so did those identical apartments 
receive Louis ]S^ai>ol eon a little later, when affairs had 
taken a turn, and Louis Napoleon had become an ally of 
the Queen of England in conquering the Emperor of 
Eussia. 

Only a few days before Louis Nai)oleon came in im- 
perial state to pay his first visit to the Queen of Eng- 
land at ro3 al Windsor, to be received with imx)ressive 
courtesy and conducted to the royal ai>artmeuts " re- 
served for sovereigns of the first class," her Majesty 
had another visitor, one whose condition had been 
strangely changed. The ex-Queen of the French, Marie 
Amelie, came to pay her respects to the Queen. Meekly 
the poor soul departed in her fallen state, upon which 
Queen Victoria said, " It made us both so sad to see her 
drive away in a plain coach with miserable post-horses, 
and to think that this was the queen of the French, and 
that six years ago her husband was surrounded by the 
same pomp and grandeur which three days hence would 
surround his successor.'' 

That ])omp and grandeur did surround Louis Napoleon, 
Emperor of France, when he stopped before the portal 
of Windsor Castle in one of the finest state coaches of 



148 FIFTY "YEARS A QUEEN. 

the Queen drawn by superb liorses. It now surrounded 

the greiit llussiau Emperor, whose " humble pie " was 
yet to be offered him. For the i^resent he is the imperial 
guest occupying the most sumptuous apartments in 
Windsor Oastle. It is a day of power and adulation. 
England feels honored by his visit. The Queen is 
charmed with him. She discerns good in him^ and his 
amiable traits — not so clear to the eyes of others, she at 
til is time also perceives. His sterness and severity of 
look and mood she attributed to severe and strict prin- 
cii)les of duty, and she judged him sincere even in his 
most despotic acts, which she credited to his conviction 
that it was the only way to govern. 

Incautious frankness the Queen acknowledged to be 
one of the Emperor's inconvenient peculiarities. In the 
discussion of i)olitical affairs he raised his voice to such 
a pitch that the windows had to be shut down; and 
npon more than one occasion he was cautioned to speak 
less loudly. 

The Czar told the Queen " that princes were obliged 
nowadays to strive to make themselves worthy of their 
positions, so as to reconcile people to the fact of their 
being princes" — a significant utterance when the fate of 
his son and successor is considered. 

Notwithstanding the " savage look" in his eyes, the 
Emperor of Russia appears to have made an agreeable 
impression on many of t!ie English court ladies. When 
he visited England in 1816 he was a very fine looking 
young man of "grand stature, elegant form, and hand- 
some face, with a decided talent for saying pretty things 
to women." This talent, it would seem, he had pre- 
served well, as he was now said to be devoted to beauti- 
ful women, and particularly so to his "old English 
flames," who joyfully received his attentions. 

At the end of his visit to Queen Victoria, the Czar 
kissed the children of her Majesty most affectionately, 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 149 

luid kissed the Queen's l!aiid,aud she, as she says, kissed 
him. He then drove away with Prince Albert, who ac- 
companied him as fnr as Woolwich, never to visit the 
Queen again. 

During the stay of the mighty Eussian there was also 
nnother king on a visit to the English court and its 
sovereign. His Majest^^ of Saxony had come to pay a 
visit to Queen Victoria. He had. arrived in advance of 
the Eussian Emi)eror, and being an unohstrusive per- 
sonage, was i)ut quite in the background by the other 
conspicuous royalty. 

The King of Saxony remained a week after the de- 
parture of the Czar, and finished tranquilly his visit to 
the Queen and Prince. 

'Eo sooner had the Eussian Emperor departed from 
England, with his mind made easy on the subject of 
France, than France became agitated on the score of the 
Emperor's visit to England. 

It had been arranged that the King of the French 
should return her Miijesty's visit to him at the Chateau 
d' En, and the time had been named when he should 
come to England. That arrangement was now jeopar- 
dized by the jealousy of the French lest some movement 
prejudicial to their interests might arise from the visit 
of the Eussian. 

In her natural feeling of family interest, the Queen 
begged her uncle of Belgium to persuade his father-in- 
law of France to come in September, as agreed, as she 
says, " our motives and i^olicies are not to be exclusive, 
but to be on good terms with all, and why should we 
not." 

Prince Albert lost his father this year, and the Queen 
sympathized in his grief very sincerely. The Duke of 
Coburg had died after a few hour's illness, and the 
tidings of his death fell upon the Prince with a stunning 
force that fairly prostrated him. " Not to see him, not 



150 mVTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

to be present to close bis eyes, not to help comfort those 
he leaves behind hira," was a grief to the filial son. 

" Here we sit together," he said, when his sorrow wys 
fresh ni>on liira, "poor mamma, Victoria, and myself,an(l 
weep, with a great cold public around us insensible as 
stone." In his suffering he resented the conviction 
which lie felt, that there were but few in England wbo 
cared anything for the fatber wliora he was so bitterly 
mourning. Very few in England, either living or dead, 
did care for the Duke of Coburg, outside of the weeping 
grouj) who were his near relatives and who therefore 
loved him. 

Lady Lyttelton said tbe Queen was affecting in her 
grief, wbicb was "all on the Prince's account." Per- 
haps it was a more dreadful calamity in her Majesty's 
mind that she must spare her husband for a few days, 
while he went over to Coburg; but that being his desire 
she resolved to bear it. 

On the same day that he left her for his journey to 
Cobnrg, he wrote to his wife from Dover, on board the 
Princess Alice: 

" I have been here about an hour, and regret tbe lost 
time which I might have spent with you. Poor child ! 
you will, while I write, be getting ready for luncheon, 
and you will find a place vacant where I sat yesterday. 
In your heart, however, I hope my place will not be 
vacant. I, at least, have you on board with me in spirit. 
I reiterate my entreaty, *bear up!' and do not give way to 
low spirits, but try to occupy yourself as much as pos- 
sible. You are even now half a day nearer to seeing me 
again; by the time you get this letter, you will be a 
wbole one,— thirteen more, and I am again within youi 



From every point on the road tbe Prince wrote to hi? 
wife; and when the thirteen days had g^one by he wa? 
back at Windsor by her side. 



I 



CHAPTER XYIII. 



THE QUEEN RECEIVES THE KINO OF THE FRENCH AT 
WINDSOR CASTLE— THE PRINCE OF PRUSSIA AT THE 
ENOLISH COURT — FAMILIAR SCENES — LONDON REVISITED 
BY THE FRENCH KING— M. GUIZOT'S MENTION OF THE 
QUEEN — BIRTH OF THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH — COMPLI- 
CATIONS—BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND— POINTED 
LETTERS FROM THE QUEEN TO THE KING OF THE 
BELGIANS — SPANISH MARRIAGES — THE QUEEN'S SECOND 
VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 

In October, i844, the King of the French arrived at 
Windsor Castle on his promised visit to the Queen. He 
came a month later than the time originally intended, 
and was received by the Queen with great kindness and 
ceremony. 

His presence in England evidently impressed her 
Majesty much, as she says: "What numbers of emotions 
and thoughts must have filled his breast on coming here ! 
He is the first King of France who comes on a visit to 
a sovereign of this country." 

At luncheon Louis Philix^pe sat at table exactly where 
the Em])eror of Eussia had been placed during his re- 
cent visit; and the same suite of rooms in the castle as- 
signed the Czar, during his stay there were now to be 
occupied by the King of the French. 

151 



152 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 



Prince Albert, accompanied by the D ake of Wellington, 
had gone to Portsmouth to receive his Majesty there on 
•his arrival, although it had been doubtful whether the 
Tahiti complication might not have involved a different 
and less peaceable attention a few months earlier to the 
French and their Kin a". 

The Queen invested his Majesty with the Order of the 
G-arter. It was made quite a ceremony, at which the 
Duke of Cambridge aided the Queen in putting on the 
ribbon, and the Prince assisted her in x>utting on the 
Garter. The Queen also gave him an elaborate gold cup, 
with St. George and the Dragon depicted upon it. The 
people were enthusiastic in their reception and demon- 
strative in good- will towards him. 

Many scenes in England had been familiar to him in 
years gone by. As the Duke of Orleans he had made ac- 
quaintance with those of one order, when he was here in 
exile; he now had knowledge of a kind entirely different. 
Then his name was "Ohabot," and four years from his 
presnt visit he was to come again as "John Smith," fly- 
ing from the wrath of his "good people" in France. ]N"ow, 
however, he is the King; and in all the splendors about 
him there is no sign of that coming storm. 

With characteristic French vivacit^^ he re-visited all the 
places which he had known — pointed out houses where 
he had resided while in exile, and when he was eking 
out an existence by such means as he could find. Of 
these matters he talked with the ease that he might 
have done had they concerned others than himself. For 
the present the king's mind was occupied with arrange- 
ments that should be favorable to France, and that would 
be forwarded by the friendshii) of England. 

On i^arting with the Queen, Louis Philippe made her 
pleasant speeches. He praised the beauties of Windsor 
and complimented her children; but what pleased and 
touched her most was, that the King of France had 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN, 153 

joined in the same opinion with the Emperor of Eussia 
from whom he differed so much, about her "beloved 
Albert. 

It would appear that all the royalties of Europe had 
decided to drop iu for friendly visits to the young Queen 
of England. Shortly before the arrival of Louis Phili])pe 
came the Prince of Prussia, now tlie Emperor of Ger- 
many. 

Him the Queen liked. "He was," she said, "extremely 
agreeable and sensible, cheerful and easy to get on 
with." These valuable qualifications in a father-in-law, 
her Majesty's daughter realized probably after she be- 
came the wife of his son Frederick William, the Impe- 
rial Prince of Germany. 

At the time of his visit (September, 1844), the future 
daughter-in-law, "our Pussette," was in her fourth year, 
a happy, healthy little maiden, "her cheeks on the point 
of bursting, so red and plump" were they. Although 
she was learning Gaelic and verses of LamaTtine— so her 
father and mother said — she was indifferent to the quali- 
fications of a father-in-law. 

On August 6th, 1844, Windsor Castle was for a while 
a i)lace of excitement, when a second son was born to her 
Majesty and Prince Albert. The sound constitution of 
the Queen made her confinements speedy affairs, from 
which she rapidly recovered. 

On September 6th the young Prince was christened in 
the chapel at Windsor. The names given him were Al 
fred Ernest Albert, and his sponsors were Prince George 
of Cambridge, Prince Charles of Leiningen, represented 
respectively by the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of 
Wellington ; and the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg,represented 
by the Duchess of Kent. 

The Crown Princess and the Prince of Wales were 
present at the ceremony, a touching sight to the royal 
mother, who said of it, "To see those two children there, 



154 I'IFTS YEARS A QUEfiJT. 

seemed sucli a dream to me. May God bless them all, 
poor little tliiugs." That this baby might be as good as 
his father — the Queen's standard of perfection — was a 
fervently expressed desire. 

The young Prince now born (the present Duke of 
Edinburgli) came at a j^eriod of anxiety in England. Not- 
withstanding that the commerce of the country was re- 
viving after a depression of years, that agriculture also 
was in a promising condition, and tliat former deficits 
in the revenue were now replaced by a surplus of over 
4,000,000 pounds which left a net balance of nearly 
1,500,000 pounds in the hands of the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, a great discontent was manifested with re- 
gard to the Premier by a portion of the people. 

The satisfactory financial state of the country was due 
to the policy of Sir Robert Peel. The results were more 
than accei)table, tiiey were gratifying; but the means of 
their accomplislimeut— the repeal of protective duties — 
was condemned very generally by others, and by a large 
percentage of the government party itself. 

The French had taken possession of the Island of Tahiti, 
and for a while the English government and the Queen 
were much exercised over that proceeding. A move- 
ment on the part of the French offtcials on the Island 
resulted in a collision with others of the English nation. 
Very hotly Sir Robert Peel denonnced in Parliament 
"the gross insult, accompanied by a gross indignity," 
oifered to England by the French, and, as he asserted,b3^ 
the direction of the Frencli government. In France and 
in England the people were excited, the press of both 
countries adding fuel to flame by the outlook which 
they contributed of the situation, and their recommenda- 
tion to either country to proceed to war. 

Back of the people and the press were the Queen of 
England and the King of the French, well disposed 
toward each other. Bv the side of the King of the 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 155 

French was bis son-in-law, the King of the Belgians, 
who possessed an Influence over him more potent than 
that of any other; and he was also the nncle of lier Ma- 
jesty of England, to whose counsel she attended more 
than to that of any one else in the world except her hns 
band. With King Leopold's knowledge of England and 
its affairs and people, and his understanding with tbe 
French King and his Ministers, his good of&ces, put forth 
with his usual address, led to more congenial measures 
than a war between the two nations. Negotiations dis- 
l)osed of the diffiiculty, which at one time had an aspect 
so serious as to cause the Queen to write to her uncle : 
"The whole nation here are very angry. God grant that 
all may come right, and I am still of good cheer; but the 
French keep us constantly in hot water." A little later 
she was speaking her mind ))retty plainly, saying to 
King Leopold, "I think it very unwise in Guizot not to 
have at once disavowed d'Aubigny for what you your- 
self call an * outrage,' instead of allowing it to drag on 
for four weeks, and let onr people get excited." 

After the matter had been peaceably composed, the 
queen wrote to her uncle again: "The good ending of 
onr difficulties with France is an immense blessing; but 
it is really and truly necessary that you and those in 
Paris should know that the danger was imminent. We 
must try and i^revent these difficulties for the future." 

It was after the " good ending of these difficulties" 
that Louis Philippe paid his visit (already mentioned) to 
the Queen at Windsor. M. Guizot accompanied him, 
and it was during his stay at Windsor that he wrote to 
his son of a State dinner-party there respecting the 
Queen: " On my left sat the young Queen, whom they 
tried to assassinate the other day, in gay spirits, 
talking a great deal, and laughing verj^ often, and long- 
ing to laugh still more; and filling with her gaiety, 
which contrasted with the alreadv trafiical elements of 



156 FIE^TY YEARS A QUEEIf. 

lier history, this ancient castle, which has witnessed the 
career of all her predecessors^ " 

It was certainly very usefnl and convenient for the 
Queen of England, who, warned by several surprises on 
the part of her neighbors of France, was obliged to keep 
a watchful eye on their movements, to have a friend at 
court, in the person of her uncle, whom she could not 
onl}^ trust but rely on for good and wise counsel. 

A few years before the present difficulty — that grow- 
ing out of Tahiti affairs — France was talking of an in- 
creased army, which much disturbed other nations, 
England among them. As the surest way and also 
the most effectual of informing Louis Philippe of Great 
Britain's views on the subject, King Leopold was told 
that the Queen would assemble Parliament, when a vote 
would be taken for forty additional sail of the line, 
Avhich would very shortly sweep everything hostile from 
the face of the seas. This was in the event of augment- 
ing the French army, which did not occur, however, 
the king and government evidently reconsidering their 
avowed determination. 

Yet another complication occurred between the English 
Queen and the French King, on the question of the 
Spanish marriages. 

The Queen thought it by no means desirable that two 
of her neighbors, France and Spain, should be united by 
the close tie of a marriage between a son of the King of 
the French and the young Queen of Spain or her sister 
the Infanta, who might, in the event of the Queen's 
death or default of other heirs, ascend the throne of 
Spain. 

The expressions of England upon that subject were 
l)laiu and positive. While visiting Louis Philippe at 
Treport, Victoria told him frankly and plainly that "Eng- 
land did not object to any Prince in Ohrister dom assum- 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 157 

iug marital relations with Spain, excepting only one of 
France, wliich she would be at the pains to hinder." 

The King assured her most earnestly that not only was 
he disinclined to such an alliance, but that he would not 
give one of his sons to Spain were he solicited to do so. 

That " clever, unwise, grand, mean old man," as Jus- 
tin McOarthj^ calls him, did, however, the very thing he 
1^ remised not to do, and not only did he give his son, the 
Due de Montpensier, to Spain in marriage, but he assist- 
ed to cheat into a union with her cousin, Don Francisco 
d' Assis, the young Queen Isabella. 

This arrangement was one peculiarly dastardly. It 
was dishonest and dishonorable. The husband given to 
tlie Queen against her will was an imbecile creature, 
repugnant to her. The intention had been to arrange a 
marriage for Isabella from which no issue could spring, 
in Avhich event the Infanta, who was the wife of Louis 
Philippe's son, and her children would inherit the crown 
of Spain. The " unwise, mean" old king, who deemed 
his meanness a clever move for his own family aggrand- 
isement, was disappointed in his calculation He reaped 
no benetit whatever from his action, and it brought with 
it afterwards much trouble and vexation. 

He had in fact contemplated the marriage of Queen 
Isabella and her sister to his two sons, the Due d' Aum- 
jile and theDuc de Montpensier. Between himself and 
his facile minister, M. Guizot, he finally arranged tlie 
marriage of Isabella with the Duke of Cadiz, and that of 
her sister with his son, both of which took place at the 
same time. 

The marriages accomplished, Louis Philippe turned to 
conciliate England. Under his instruction, his wife. 
Queen Marie Amelie, wrote to Queen Victoria, with 
whom she was a favorite, a touching, motherly lettei', 
about the future happiness of her son in his recent union, 
etc.; and he also induced his daughter, the Queen of 



158 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEIf. 

the Belgians, to write to her niece, of England, on the 
same subject. 

Queen "Victoria wrote to the Queen of the French and 
to " dearest Louise" in a manner perfectly courteous 
but also unmistakably plain, intimating England's views 
and her own on the stej) which the French King bad 
taken. In her own hapi)y union her sympathies were 
with the young Queen of Spain, circumvented into a 
marriage odious to her; and ui)on that score, and from a 
standpoint of state policy, her disapi)roval was em- 
phatically voiced. 

Without having compassed bis views, as after-events 
proved, Louis Philippe had refined away the foundations 
of his throne without securing that of Spain. Isabella 
gave heirs to the Spanish Crown, and the nearest ap- 
proach to its i)ossession by the descendants of the 
"clever, unwise, grand, mean old man," was in the union 
of his granddaughter Mercedes, a daughter of the Due 
and Duchess of Montpensier, with Ali)honso X., the son 
of Queen Isabella. For a brief period after her love- 
marriage with her cousin, King Alphonso, Mercedes 
was Queen of Spain ; but on her death she left no heirs to 
tbe Spanish succession. 

In the Fall of 1844, it had been the design of the queen 
to visit Ireland. That country, however, was then in an 
unsettled state. Tbe trial and imprisonment of the 
great Irish leader, Daniel O'Connell, had taken place, 
and also his release by the action of the House of Lords. 

In the circumstance her Majesty went to the High- 
lands of Scotland. Blair Castle was chosen as a resi- 
dence, from which the Queen wrote to her uncle Leopold, 
that " the place possessed every attraction that could be 
desired— shooting, fishing, great liberty and retirement, 
and delicious air," 



CHAPTEE XIX. 



DUELLING ABOLISHED IN ENGLAND— PRINCE ALBERT 
BECOMES THE CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIYERSITY OF 
Cx\.MBRIDGE— THE QX^EEN RESIDES AT THE CHANCELLOR'S 
INSTALLATION AND RECEIVES HIS SPEECH— THE INTER- 
NATIONAL EXPOSITION— ORIGIN OF THE CRYSTAL 
PALACE— SCHOOLS OF DESIGN INSTITUTED IN ENGLAND — 
IMPORTANCE OF ART INDUSTRY IN COMMERCE— THE 
QUEEN PURCHASES OSBORNE IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT- 
PETITION TO THE QUEEN TO YISIT IRELAND —THE QUEEN 
IN GERMANY — GERMANS HONORING THE QXTIEN AND 
PRINCE— THE PRINCE KEEPS HIS BIRTHDAY IN FATHER- 
LAND. 

Before this time "the good old custom" of duelliug 
bad beeu abolished by a law framed agaiust it at the 
t^uggestiou of Priuee Albert, aud passed through his 
ageucy combined with that of the Duke of AVellingtou. 

A duel had taken place between two persons who were 
brothers-in-law. Both were officers in the English army. 
The survivor had been reluctantly goaded into the con- 
flict, after having been repeatedly insulted, and finally 
compelled to the meeting through a force of public opinion 
which, had he persisted in his refusal to shoot and be 
shot at, would have have broken up his connection with 

159 



160 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEIT. 

the army, destroyed all his future i^rospects of a career, 
aud put him outside the pale of good society, with the 
brand of coward iix)on him. 

After much discussion the subject was brought before 
the Cabinet by the Secretary of War. That body re- 
ported upon it to the Queen, who was quite ready to ac- 
cept her husband's view of the question; but English 
customs were not to be tampered with lightly even by 
the Sovereign. 

The Articles of War had to be amended before the 
problem could be safely solved; and it was finally de- 
clared "snitable to the character of honorable -men to 
apologize and offer redress for wrong or insult committed, 
and equally so for the party aggrieved to accept frankly 
and cordially explanation and ai^ologies for the same." 

At a later period Prince Albert was made Chancellor 
of tlie University of Cambridge, and the Queen was 
present at his Installation aud, there x)residing, received 
his sx)eech, which he delivered in his robes of office. Her 
Majesty approved heartily the choice the University had 
made in its Chancellor. Aud she says afterwards, "I can- 
not say how it agitated and embarrassed me to have to 
receive this address, and hear it read by my beloved 
Albert, who walked in at the head of the University, 
and looked dear and beantiful in his robes." 

The Academy of Fine Arts, of which the Prince was 
made President when first originated, was one imi)ortant 
in results. At its first Exhibition in Westminster Hall 
cartoons illustrative of English Poetry and History were 
put on view; and the success of the enterprise in this 
instance was sufficient to denote the lo\e of art in the 
people, which later bronght to the nation extremely gra- 
tifying results. 

Sir Charles Kastlake, whose name is associated with 
art progress in interiors. Sir Edward Landseer, Sir 
William Ross, Maclise, Uwins, and others familiar in 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 161 

art movemeuts were associated with Prince Albert in 
the Academy. 

At first a fear existed tbat Prince Albert would de- 
sire to introduce too niucli German sentiment to the 
exclusion of Englisli, and so perhaps graft upon the 
nation an art that, however desirable, must, if foreign, 
be rejected. No such idea had the discreet Prince. 
Ever^^hing Englisli ha 1 to be fostered, and by-and-by, 
differing with his associates, he was telling them "that 
the purposes of decoration might be combined with a 
patriotic and moral aim, and that although many would 
give but a passing glance to works, the i)ainter was not 
therefore to forget that others might view them with 
more thoughtful eyes." 

With this institution began an art movement in Eng- 
land that has been one of vast importance. It was the 
foundation of the International Exposition of 1851. When 
first talked of, that project had been opposed greatly. It 
was set forth that a gathering of people from different 
countries would be made an occasion for the disconten- 
ted and rough element of all to combine in all sorts of 
outrages. The sovereigns of other nations than Eng- 
land, and their ambassadors in London, took this view, 
and added much to the general clamor against it, 
and much to the delay in carrying it forward. Hyde 
Park as a situation for the exposition had been opposed 
strenuously. By the persistent effort of the Prince, back- 
ed by the Queen, this point was finally carried; but the 
time consumed made that of the Prince and his col- 
leagues exceedingly brief in which to carry out their 
arrangements. 

The Crystal Palace, in which tbe exposition was held, 
was due mainly to the hindrances that bad consumed 
time, when it became necessary to consider a building 
that should be speedily erected, and that sliould be cap- 
able of accommodating the vast amount of matter sent for 



162 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

exhibition and the people who should come to see it. 
The glass and iron structure was the inspiration of Sir 
Josex^h Paxton. 

Between seven and eight hundred thousand people 
were in London streets on tbe opening day, and over 
thirty thousand witnessed the opening ceremonies with- 
in the Crystal Palace, which was as much of a curiosity 
to the spectators as anything which it covered. 

It was that exposition which made England sensible 
of her own ignorance of art as applied to industries; 
and in seeing the displays of other countries she realized 
the commercial loss which that ignorance entailed. 
With a grave sense of the importance of the subject she 
proceeded to repair her mistake. From researches made 
with that end in view, the bureau devoted to art and 
science education was established. Her Majesty's con- 
suls were requested by circular letter to signify the 
condition of industrial education among the nations 
where their mission was, with results that showed that 
France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia were 
far in advance of Great Britain. 

Schools of design were tiien established throughout 
the kingdom. The ]!:^ational school for the training of 
Art masters and Art mistresses connected with tlie 
Soutli Kensington Museum was one most effectual. 

From 1847 to 1856, French exportation s reached the 
sum of 1,174,000,000 francs, 418,000,000 of wliich were 
for art industries. So large a percentage induced Eng- 
land to put forth efforts in the same direction. After 
a time she stripi>ed France of lialf of her commerce in art 
industries; and that nation was forced to redouble her 
endeavor to recover the position which she had held as 
a leader in industrial arts and their products. 

To the Queen it was a particular delight to be away 
from bustling London, and, if possible, hedged away in 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 163 

some calm retreat where affairs of State were not claim- 
ing constant attention. 

With all tlie palaces in England in lier possession, it 
wonld seem that slie bad an ambition to possess proper- 
ties that slionld be ber own exclusively, not the domain 
of the nation. 

In 1855 her Majesty purchased Osborne in the Isle of 
AVight. At first it had an area of 800 acres, which was 
increased by other purchases to 2300. She was charmed 
with her new estate. She wrote to her nncle, the King 
of the Belgians, " that it was a great gratification to have 
a place of one's own, quiet and retired, and free from 
all Woods and Forests' and other charming departments, 
which really are the ])lague of one's life" It was im- 
l)ossible, she said, "to see a prettier place, with woods and 
vdllejs iuid poi?its de vue which, would be beautiful any- 
where; but when these are combined with the sea (to 
which the woods grow down), and a beach which is quite 
private, it is really everything one could wish.'* 

After her Majesty's experience at Brighton, where 
siie was crowded on to such an extent, when abroad there, 
that she was obliged to invoke the protection of the 
police, this last consideration was not without its im- 
portance. 

This lovely place had a great stretch of sea-shore 
around it; Portsmouth and Spithead were in view; and 
it affor.'ledthe"beloved Albert" the pleasure of laying out 
tlje grounds after his own plans. With regard to the labor- 
ers he employed there. Lady Lyttelton said his plan was 
"to give work to as man^^ as i)0ssible, but not making 
any haste, so as to make it last and keep at a steady, 
useful i)itcb, not to over-excite the market." At the 
harvest-time tlie men were dismissed that they might 
work for others; but the moment any man failed of em- 
])loyment elsewhere, he was at liberty to return and 
again go to work on the Queen's estate. 



164 "fifty years a queej?. 

Her Majesty opened Paiiiameut in February, 1845. 
She meutioued the visits to the country of the Emperor 
of Russia and the King of the French, and she spoke of 
a fiscal reform Nvliich should have for its object a continu- 
ation of the income tax for a i)eriod longer than originally 
ordered; of the establishment of colleges at different 
points in Ireland that should be open to i)ersons of all 
denominations; and of a grant to the Catholic college of 
Maynooth of £30,000 a year in the place of £9,000 which 
it then received. There was a good fiscal showing this 
year at the opening of Parliament in a surplus fnnd of 
£5,800,000; and the Queen was so well pleased with 
her Premier, Sir Eobert Peel, thatslie signified her desire 
to be sj^onsor for his grandchild, born to Lord and Lady 
Villiers. On August 9th, the Queen prorogued Parlia- 
ment. Ireland petitioned her to visit that portion of her 
possessions, promising at the same time a loyal aud 
hearty welcome. But Ireland was not yet in a state of 
tranquillity, so that the Queen felt justified in post- 
poning her visit there for the present. 

A trip to Germany was decided upon instead. Before 
her departure the Queen wrote: "Both Yicky and dar- 
ling Alice were witli me while I dressed. Poor dear Puss 
would much have wished to go with us, and often pro- 
l)oseil how she miglit go, and said, 'Why am I not going 
to Germany?' * * * All four of the children were 
with us at the breakfast, after which I gave Lady Lyttel- 
ton my last instructions, and then, with a heavy heart, 
we bade them all adieu in the hall. Poor little Vicky 
seemed very sorry, but did not cr}^ It was a very 
painful moment to drive away with the three poor little 
things standing at the door. God bless them and pro- 
tect them, which he will ! And they are in excellent 
hands." With these feelings the royal mother, very 
much like other mothers leaving home and babies be- 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 165 

hind, faced her journey to Germany, the home of her 
"dearest Albert." 

At Mali lies tlie Queen and Prince were joined by the 
King and Queen of the Belgians, who went with them to 
Verviers. 

The King of Prussia came to Aix-la-Chapelle accom- 
panied by many princes to receive the Queen of Eng- 
land and her husband. From Cologne they went to the 
Brulil station, and thence to the pahice, where the 
Queen, the Princess of Prussia, and the whole court had 
assembled to receive them. The Queen's visit to the 
former little house at Bonn in which the Prince had 
lived when a student at the University there, was one of 
her dear delights. Every place that he had resided in 
was explored by the fond wife, who perceived something 
sacred and dear in each, merely because they were hal- 
lowed, in her estimation, by liis presence; and the 
people that he had known, as well as the places, when 
he was here at school were precious in the eyes of his 
wife. 

A great banquet was given at the palace in honor of 
her Majesty and the Prince, at which were present 
German royalties and distinguished persons of Cologne 
and Bonn. Very gallantly the King gave the toast, 
"Victoria." He said "it was a word of inexpressible 
sweetness to German as well as to British hearts. It 
had echoed on the heights of Waterloo thirty years ago 
from British and from German tongues, after days of hot 
and desperate fighting, to mark the glorious triumph of 
a brotherhood in arms. Now it was resounding on the 
banks of fair Bhine, amid the blessings of that peace 
which was the hollowed fruit of that great conflict." 

The Prince was also toasted, and when the king was 
taking his seat after the compliment. Queen Victoria 
bent forward and kissed his cheek. 



166 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN-. 

The Cathedral of Cologne and raauy of tlie houses 
were illuminated in honor of the Queen and Prince; and 
the waters of the Rhine, reflecting the lights shining on 
them, gave the appearance of a river on fire. The Pro- 
fessors at Bonn who had been the Prince's instructors 
were presented to the Queen, and were graciously re- 
ceived by her. "Many of them spoke with pleasure and 
pride of (my all-in-all,)" a theme that did not tire her. 
The dear uncle Leopold and aunt Louise again joined 
the English royal party at Bruhl, and here a grand 
concert was given in honor of the Queen, at which 
Meyerbeer conducted in person; Liszt also performed 
there, and Jenny Lind sang. 

Three queens (of England, Prussia, and of Belgium), 
the Kings of Prussia and Belgium, Prince Albert, the 
Prince and Princess of Prussia (now the Emperor Wil- 
liam and Empress Augusta of Germany), an Archduke 
Baron Yon Humboldt, and the suites of their Majesty s' 
and Royal tys sailed u^) the Rhine amid the cannonading 
of the forts and a musketry fire of 20,000 troops, to the 
King of Prussia's castle, Schloss Stolzenfels. 

From this point to Bingen,"fair Biugen on the Rhine," 
they journeyed, and then on to Mayence, where another 
deputation of German Royalties were in waiting. At 
this point the Queen and Prince met one with w^hom 
their first acquaintance with this world had been 
made, in the person of Madame Heidenreich,whohad been 
Madame Siebold, the accoucheuse that had assisted 
at their births. Here also the Queen for the first time 
made the acquaintance of Prince Louis of Hesse, her 
future son-in law. "He was a fine boy of eight— nice 
and full of intellis'eiice." That was her Majesty's opi- 
nion of him at tliat time,one she has since changed vastly, 
it may be supposed, considering passages in his life 
since good and sweet Princess Alice died. 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 167 

Aloug the liiieof tlieir route princes and i)eople came 
forth to do them honor. They were in danger of being 
deafened by artillery and buried under addresses and 
flowerSjSO loud and frequent was the former performance 
and so profuse the latter. 

On Hearing the Ooburg frontier the Queeu and Prince 
discerned the flags flying in their honor, "the peoi)le 
drawn up in lines, and Ernest (the Duke of Ooburg) in 
full uniform coming to welcome them." Passing under 
triumphal arches, dignitaries were bowing and welcom- 
ing, and the streets were alive with cordial peox)le. The 
first stop made in Ooburg was at the cottage of the 
grandmother who had so much loved these two, and so 
greatly desired their union. Here Albert had often 
been, Victoria never until now. Here, at the home of 
his mother, were uncle Leopold and his wife, waiting to 
join the Queen and her husband on their way to the 
palace, where were waiting to receive them the Duchess 
of Kent, the Dowager Duchess, and the Duchess of 
Ooburg. "The staircase was full of cousins, it was an 
affecting but exquisite moment," which the Queen said 
she would never forget. 

The Rev. Mr. Oenzler, the court chaplain, who had 
married the father and mother of the Queen twenty- 
seven years before, and who had con Mimed the princes, 
Earnest and Albert, made them an impressive address, 
and suri)rised the Queen by his still youthful look. 

Ti]e Rosenau was to be the residence of the Queen and 
Prince while in Ooburg. Here she awoke, August 20th, 
1845, and afterwards she wrote about it: "How hai)py, 
how joyful we were on awaking to feel ourselves here 
at the dear Eosenau, my Albert's birthplace, the place 
he loves most. He was so happy to be here with me. 
It w^as like a beautiful dream. Music, concerts, festi- 
vals, balls, and receptions followed rapidly." "God 
save the Queen" liad been arranged to German words, and 



168 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJf. 

was sai]g with German heartiness. The Qneen and 
Prince held a reception at the pahice of Ooburg,where not 
onl3^ great personages were presented, but "deputations 
of citizens, merchants, and artisans." These, tlie Queen 
found, "made better bows than many of the Englisli 
people at the levees," and their conduct was admirable. 

The Prince's birthda3' in his birthiilace was a great 
event. It was celebrated with all the ceremonies fami- 
liar and dear to him, and tbe Queen says: "To celebrate 
this dear day in my beloved husband's conntry and 
birthiDlace is more than I ever hoped for, and I am so 
thankful for it. I wished him joy so warmly when the 
singers sang. The day was the finest and warmest and 
brightest summer's day imaginable, which is of good 
omen to dearest Albert." Like a good wife and a fond 
one, the Queen was eagerly assisting the Duke and 
Duchess of Coburg in arranging the birthday gifts on 
"a table dressed with flowers." This was a f^te day in 
Coburg. The people came out in gala dress. They loved 
the Prince, and delighted to honor him, and tbe Queen 
loved them for the love they gave her husband. 

With the Prince the Queen strolled among the hay- 
makers after the f^te was over. The women drew near 
and said "Guten abend," a usual salutation among the 
Germans; and one who had two cliildren with her en- 
tered into conversation. To her the Queen gave some 
pieces of money, and, says her Majesty, "She shook 
my hand for it." She also says that the people were 
good-natured and simple. "The relation between them 
and their superiors so pleasant." 

On August 27th, the next after the birthday, the 
Qiieen and Prince left Coburg — his loved home, to the 
Queen a place endeared on that account, and for other 
causes. Coburg was the possession of the brother-in- 
law Earnest, Duke of Coburg, to whom she was sincerel^^ 
attached; and this palace of Coburg had been her 



E*IFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 169 

mother's home. Here the manin«^e of her father and 
motlier had taken place; and she who was lierself 
half Coburg felt almost wliolly so in heart, so much was 
she drawn to it from associations with others most dear 
to her. Witli saddened hearts adiens were said; and 
the Queen of England departed from the Saxon home of 
her forefathers. 



CHAPTER XX. 



HER MAJESTY MEETS OLD ACQUAINTANCES IN OER- 
M ANY— THE QUEEN AND PRINCE VISIT BELGIUM, AND 
MAKE A SHORT YISIT TO LOUIS PHILIPPE AT TREPORT — 
THE GALERIE VICTORIA IN THE CHATEAU DEU — A 
MINISTERIAL CRISIS— BIRTH OF THE PRINCESS HELENA 
— THE ROYAL FAMILY IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS — 
REVOLUTION IN EUROPE— LOUIS PHILIPPE AND FAMILY 
FLY TO ENGLAND, AND RECEIVE AN ASYLUM FROM THE 
QUEEN — THE QUEEN AND PRINCE IN GREAT ANXIETY. 

The Duke of Meiningen took occasion tojoiu tlie Qiieeu 
iiutl Piiuce oil their homeward journey, aiid to entertain 
them at his court for tlie brief i)eriod they could stay. 
They visited the Dowager Duchess of Gotha, the Prin- 
ce's grandmother, who called him her "Angel Albert," 
which his wife thought an appropriate ai)pellation. At 
every point in Germany the royal English ])arty 
met a perfect ovation. All the sovereigns oftered them 
signal courtesies and honors, and the people were 
spoutaneous in a hearty outi)ouring of good-will. 

The Baroness Lehzen, now living in Germany, came to 
[)ay her duty to the Queen whom she had known " since 
she was six months old/' and to whom she had been 
tlie close companion and governess from her pupil's "fifth 
170 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 171 

to lier eigliteentli year, dining wliicli time she never 
took one day's holida}^," so said Victoria. 

The Queen reached Antwerp, September 6th, and was 
received at the railway station by the King and Queen 
of the Belgians. The visit of the Queen to Germany 
seemed to demand, for the proper preservation of his 
Majesty's dignity, that the Sovereign of England should 
make a passing call on the King of the French at Tre- 
port, where he then was. 

This she did, and again the two royal standards of 
France and England were floating over the heads of the 
monarch s of those countries as together they were 
rowed to the shore at Treport in the barge of the King 
of the French. The Queen of the French, Madame 
Adelaide, and tlie Prince and Princess of Salerno waited 
on the shore to receive the Queen of England and 
Prince Albert, and with Louis Philippe, gave them a 
royal welcome and led them to the Chateau d'Eu. 

A very grand room, called the "Gralerie Victoria," had 
here been fitted up in honor of her Majesty's former 
visit. Full-length portraits of the Queen and Prince, by 
Winterhalter, were conspicuous among others commem- 
orative of that event, and of the King's visit to her at 
Windsor Castle. 

The Queen remained at Treport but one day, and on 
her departure was accompanied on board her yacht by 
the King and others of his household. During the ab- 
sence of Prince Albert with one of the Orleans Princes, 
Louis Philippe conversed with the Queen and Lord 
Aberdeen, who was one of her suite, in relation to t lie 
Spanish marriages, whicli had not then taken place. It 
was then that he told her in the presence of Lord Aber- 
deen that " he never would hear of Montpensier's mar- 
riage with the Infanta of Spam (which they were in a 
great fright about in England) until it was no longer a 
political question, which would be when the Queen is 



lT2 FIFTY YEARS A QlJEElS". 

married and lias cliildreu. "To the Queen this was very 
satisfactory. She trusted tbe professions of the French 
King, who, while he made them, was plotting the accom- 
plishment of what he afterwards carried into effect. For 
the present Victoria sees in him a king who has been 
disparaged by other crowned heads of Europe, to whom 
for that reason she would like to lend countenance for 
the sake of her uncle and aunt, wlio are his relatives, 
and for the amiability his family and himself have mani- 
fested towards herself and her husband. In a little 
while Louis Philippe will have a different aspect in her 
eyes — in a little while, and the time is drawing near. 

Over a sea like a lake, so still and smooth it was, the 
royal yacht Victoria mid Albert bore tlie Queen and 
Prince to the beach at Osborne, " where, " says the 
Queen, " the dearest of welcomes greeted us as we 
drove up straight to the liouse, where, looking like roses, 
so well and so fat, stood the four children," overjoy ed at 
their return. 

The Queen wrote to her uncle Leopold — her confidant — ■ 
after her return home: " I have a feeling for our dear 
little Germany which I cannot describe. I felt it at 
the Eosenau so much; it is something which touches me 
so, and which goes to my heart and makes me inclined 
to cry. I never felt at any other place that sort of pen- 
sive pleasure and peace which I felt there. The recol- 
lection of the times spent in Saxony are engraven on my 
heart. " 

In England the Queen found anxieties awaiting her 
after that charming holiday trix). Rain had been con- 
stant and profuse, and there were serious fears of a 
failure of the crops at home; while in Ireland the first 
symptoms of the potato-rot had appeared. On this sub- 
ject the minds of the people were disturbed; and the 
Government was exercised upon the consideration of the 
consequences that might arise in circumstances of the 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEE2^. 173 

situation. Soon tlie fear of tlie famine that afterwards 
fell upon Ireland was a starl^ling question, demanding' 
consideration. England and Scotland were suffering 
severely from tbe failure of crops, and sometliing must 
be done for the relief of the people The Premier saw a 
remedy in the abolition of the protective tariff, a measure 
wbicli Le would liave advised hj an order from the Privy 
Council while Parliament, was not in session, had it not 
been for the fear that the protective duties, ouce abolish- 
ed, would be practically impossible of restoration. 

Sir Robert Peel's cabinet had been specially pledged 
to u])hold i)r<)tection, a pledge upon which his ministry 
had been formed. Sir John Eussell had been particular- 
ly active in denouncing Peel's procedure in upholding 
the duties under the circumstances, when unable himself 
to accede to a proposition which his own views justified. 
Sir liobert Peel resigned, and Lord John Eussell was 
summoned by the Queen to form a new cabinet. This 
he found himself unable to do, and Peel was recalled. 

After fourteen daj^s of anxiety, the Queen rejoices in 
having withstood a ministerial crisis, and is now stand- 
ing exactly where she stood before — "on her feet; where- 
as during the pinch she was very nearly standing on her 
head." Peel's resignation had been regarded by the 
people as a calamity. He had taken office when the 
country had been sunk in debt, and he had brought it 
triumphantly to a solvent and satisfactory^ condition. 
This they remembered, and they were only too delighted 
Avhen again he accei)ted the office of Premier. It was 
considered a safeguard to have him in that position. 
jNIore even than usual the i^eople had x^i'itle in their 
Queen. So much had she been honored abroad that 
their respect was heightened, and their confidence in 
her power to maiutaiu amicable relations with the po- 
tentates of other ('<)untvi(\s wa.s gratifying and great. 
Even the newspapers hitherto in opposition to the 



174 FIFTY YEARS A QUEE]^^. 

Goverumeut (lisceriiedtliat," in the pranks andbunglings 
of the last tbreo weeks there is one i)art whicli, accor- 
ding to all report, has been pla3'ed most faultlessly — 
that of a constitutional sovereign. In the pages of 
history the directness, the sincerity, the scrupulous ob- 
servance of constitutional rules which liave marked her 
Majesty's conduct in circumstances the most trying will 
have their i^lace of honor. Unused as we are to deal in 
homage to royalty, we must add that never, we believe, 
was the heart of a monarch so warmly devoted to the 
interests of a i^eople, and with so enlightened a sense of 
their interests." So one of them said. 

Sir Robert Peel has written of that time: "I resume 
l)Ower with greater means of rendering x)ubiic service 
than I should have had if I had not relinquished it. But 
it is a strange dream. I feel like a man restored to life 
after his funeral service had been preached." 

The repeal of the Corn Laws became an accomplished 
fact, passed to a successful issue by Sir Eobert Peel in 
the face of his friends and all difficulties. The Customs 
Bill was another measure passed at the same time. It 
had been strenuously^ opposed w^hen the Peel ministry 
had been voted out of power, and that which so much 
grieved the Queen — a change of ministry — had stood 
confronting her. The Coercion Bill for Ireland had been a 
measure before Parliament which, together with the 
Corn and Customs Bills, had been productive ofintem- 
l)erate discussion. The Irish peoxde would not starve 
l)eaceably ; they were guilty of transgressions against 
law and order. The English also proceeded to rioting, 
breaking the windows of Apsley House belonging to tho 
Duke of AVellington, who was fighting against the pas 
sage of the Corn Laws and for the passage of the 
Coercion Bill. The houses of others engaged on the 
same side as the Duke were as roughly handled as his 
own. 



i 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 175 

Ou tlie 29th June, 1846, Peel, having been defeated on 
tbe Irish Coercion Bill, resigned, and Lord John Rus- 
sell was selected to replace him as Premier. The Queen 
wrote to the King of the Belgians on the next day after 
l):irting with Peel: " Yesterday was a ver}^ hard day for 
me. I had to part with Sir Eohert Peel and Lord Aber- 
deen, who are irreparable losses to us and the country." 

With America, the complication arising out of the 
Oregon boundary was finally settled. On the very day 
thnt Sir Eobert Peel was announcing to the House of Com- 
mons the resignation of the Government, this news ar- 
rived. Peel counted this a great event, " as it assured 
to England the quiet possession of a magnificent tract of 
territory, and closed up the question that had more tluni 
once brought G-reat Britain to the verge of hostilities 
with America. " 

May 25th, 1846, added another Princess to the 
royal family. The Queen writes to her uncle King Leo- 
pold, July 14th, that she " longs for him to be with 
her," and urges him to be present at " our christening" 
on the 25th. She desired greatly that "Louise," her 
uncle's wife, should be present, as the royal baby was to 
bear the name of Helena, after the Duchess of Orleans, 
whose godchild she was to be. 

At Buckingham Palace the baptism took place ou 
August 25th, 1846. The young Princess received the 
name of Helena Augusta Victoria. The sponsors were 
the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the 
Duchess of Orleans (represented by the Duchess of 
Kent), and the Duchess of Cambridge. In September of 
this year. Queen Victoria with her family took posses- 
sion of Osborne House; and Lady Lyttelton wrote that 
on the first night " nobody smelt paint or caught cold," 
and that at one part of the ceremony of taking posses- 
sion, " Lucy Kerr, one of the maids-of-honor, insisted 



173 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

ou tlirowing an old shoe into the house after the Queen 
as she entered," that being a Scotch superstition. 

On such tranquil scenes broke tbe tidings of the 
" Si)anish marriages." On September 8th, 1846, the 
Queen of tlie French wrote to Queen Victoria: " Relying 
on that friendship which your Majesty has given us so 
many proofs of, and on the kind interest which you liave 
always shown towards our children, I hasten to announce 
to you that a marriage has been concluded between our 
son Montpensier and the Infanta Louise Fernanda. This 
event overwhelms us with joy, because we hope that it 
will ensure the happiness of our dear son, and that we 
shall find in the Infanta one daughter the more, as good 
and amiable as those who have in'eceded her." 

Europe was in a ferment upon this question. The 
middle classes took home the case of two young prin- 
cesses injured in their affections (the Queen of Spain 
was but sixteen), and they protested against it. That 
this should be so, Sir Eobert Peel thought natural, " un- 
less indeed Queens and Princesses are disentitled to the 
sympathy and consideration which the meanest of their 
subjects have the right to claim." "Tell M. Guizot 
from me," said Prince Metternich, " that one does not 
with impunity play little tricks with great countries. 
The English Government have done their best to estab- 
lish Louis Philippe in public opinion. They can with- 
draw what they gave, and I have always said that the 
moment he loses that, he is on the verge of a war." 
"The transaction," Baron Stockmar said, "would ap- 
l^ear to the eyes of Europe a piece of selfish and wicked 
l^olicy, from the scandal of which the King's fame would 
never recover." The Queen writes her uncle Leopold: 
" There is but one voice here on the subject, and I am, 
alas, unable to say a word in defence of one whom I had 
esteemed and respected. You may imagine what the 
whole of this makes me suffer. You cannot represent 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 177 

too strongly to the King and Queen my indignation and 
my sorrow at what has been done." 

England and France disunited concerning the mar- 
riages of tbe Queen and Infanta of Spain showed 
speedily the consequence of that disunion by sundry in 
dications all pointing to the coming storm. 

Other countries bad proceeded to ally themselves in 
action without consulting either, and the Kiug of the 
French found himself fallen iu the esteem of other 
X)otentates. 

Tbe Queen opened Parliament, February 19th, 1847. 
In her speech tbe famiue in Ireland, now fully devel- 
oped, was a principal feature. On the same day Lord 
Brougham said in the House of Lords, that "nothing is 
to be found" exceeding tbe scenes of hardship in Ire- 
land " in tbe page of Josephus, or on the canvas of Pous- 
sin, or in the dismal chant of Dante." In Scotland and 
England widesx)read distress prevailed, and matters 
were daily growing worse. Prince Albert wrote Baron 
Stockmar in tbe latter days of April: " We are all well 
despite the miserable weather and tbe unintermitting 
miserable news from all quarters. Belgium is the only 
pleasant spot iu Europe, for which God be j^raised. 
Here difficulties are brooding for a future i)eriod; still 
tbe peace of the country will remain unbroken » In Ire- 
land we are daily expecting rebellion and civil war." 

On the dissolution of Parliament tbe Queen left for 
Scotland with the Prince, the Princess Royal, and tbe 
Prince of Wales and their suite, tbe Prince of Leiuingen, 
her Majesty's half-brother, being one of tbe party. Tbeir 
stay was principally at Ardverikie iu the Highlands. 
The twenty-eighth birthday of the Prince was here ob- 
served after a sort of Highland fashion quite unique. 
Her Majesty was treated not to " Scotch mists," but to 
good substantial rains, and, a part of the time, to snow — 
the rains nearly continuously. With the lowering wea- 



178 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

tlier the political horizon bad its clouds. Italy, Spain, 
Greece, and Portugal were disturbed. In her Higliland 
retreat the Queen was intent upon the situation, and 
making suggestions as to the i^olicy wliich England 
should i)ursue in the circumstances. Her "notion was," 
wrote Lord John Russell, that "England had, by her own 
energies and the fortunate circumstances in which she 
had been placed, acquired a start in civilization, liberty, 
and prosperity over all other countries. Her popular 
institutions were the most developed and perfected, and 
she had run through a development which the otlier 
countries will yet in succession have to pass tli rough. 
England's mission, duty, and interest was to put herself 
at the head of the diffusion of civilization and the attain, 
ment of liberty. Her mode of acting should, however, 
be that of fostering and i)rotecting every effort made by 
a State to advance in that direction, but not of pressing 
on any State an advance which is not the result of its 
own impulse." 

About the middle of September the Queen began her 
homeward journey to England in wretched weather tliat 
continued the whole way. Her Majesty regretted, 
as she always did, leaving a scene of seclusion where 
retirement and independence of movement were possible, 
and returning to one of State affairs — which were just 
now far from pleasing to contemi)Iate. The Queen's 
half-sister, Feodore, wrote to her at this time : " I well 
understand your having been sorry to leave the High- 
lands. Not only that style of country, but the Avay of 
living there was agreeable to you. I know that well 
from experience, coming home after a time of deliglitful 
independence one feels so shut in on all sides, so 
tame." In this letter the Princess Hohenlohe says of 
herself: "I am becoming very resigned to what gives me 
pain or pleasure. Kot that I feel it less, but I am not 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 179 

afraid of things that give me pain; I have become so 
accustomed to it of late." 

Germany also had its indications of approaching con- 
vulsion. "United Germany" had begun to dawn. With 
lier anxiety for other friends affected by the movement 
there, the Queen was much concerned for her half- 
brother, the Prince of Leiningen, and her half-sister, 
the Princess of Hohenlohe, both of whom were ruined 
when the storm came. On February 16th, 1848, the con- 
dition of Paris was causing the Queen and the nation 
great uneasiness. Louis Philippe and his minister M. 
Guizot had taken "their stand entirely upon the old 
Bourbon i)rinciples, " the rotten foundation sinking 
beneath their feet. Ten days later France was in a blaze 
of insurrection; a Republic was proclaimed, and tlie 
King of the French with his Queen, under the name ot 
Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, were making their way to Eng- 
land. 

The Queen was at that time about to be confined of 
her sixth child. There was a money crisis in England, 
followed by a miuisterial crisis. Ireland was in a com- 
motion — soon in an ux)rising. O'Connell had died in the 
X)revlous year while on his way to Eome, and such hot 
young s])irits as Meagher, Mitch el, and Smith O'Brien 
were leading the people -"their souls in arms and eager 
for the fray." Belgium also was in danger. At this 
juncture came the news of the death of the Prince's 
grandmother of Goth a, which was an added grief for 
the Queen and him to bear. 

At this period the Prince wrote to Baron Stockmar; 
"The posture of European affairs is bad. European 
war is at our doors; France is ablaze in every quarter; 
Louis Philippe is wandering about in disguise; so is the 
Queen; Kemours and Clementine have found their way 
to Dover; of Augustus, Victoria, Alexander, Wurtem- 
berg, and the others, ail we know is, that the Duchess of 



,J80 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

Montpensier" (the Infanta of Spain) " is at Treport 
under another name; Giiizot is a prisoner, tlie Eepublic 
declared, the army ordered to the frontier, the incor- 
poration of Belgium and the Ehenish provinces pro- 
claimed. Here tliey refuse to pay the income-tax, and 
attack tlie ministry, and Victoria will be confined in a 
few days." 



CHAPTER XXL 



BIRTH OF THE PRINCESS LOUISE— THE CHARTIST DE- 
MONSTRATION IN LONDON —LOUIS NAPOLEON SWORN IN 
AS SPECIAL CONSTABLE— THE UPRISING IN IRELAND- 
FAMINE IN IRELAND— A FOURTH ATTACK MADE UPON 
THE LIFE OF THE QUEEN— PATE'S ASSAULT UPON HER 
MAJESTY— DEATH OF LOUIS PHILIPPE AT CLAREMONT— 
LOUIS NAPOLEON BECOMES EMPEROR OF FRANCE— THE 
QUEEN VISITS IRELAND— BIRTH OF THE DUKE OF CON- 
NAUGHT— BALMORAL — PRINCE ALBERT VISITS NAPOLEON 
HI.— BIRTH OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY — THE CRIMEAN 
WAR IN WHICH FRANCE AND ENGLAND ARE ALLIES- 
DEATH OF THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA— THE EMPEROR 
AND EMPRESS OF FRANCE ARE GUESTS OF QEEEN VIC- 
TORIA AT WINDSOR CASTLE. 

Marcli 18tlj, 1848, Queen Yictoria brought forth a prin- 
cess in Buckingham Palace, now the Princess Louise, 
Marchioness of Lome. Ax)ril 10th, a movement was on 
foot that had filled London with fear, namely the Chartist 
meeting which was to assemble, so rumor said, on Ken- 
niiigton Common, and from which was expected dreadful 
results. For the protection of life and x)ropert.v two 
hundred thousand si)ecial constables were sworn into 
service, one of whom was Louis Napoleon, soon to be 
Emperor of the French. The Duke of Wellington was 
in command of the troops massed and put in order for 

181 



182 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

the occasion, which, however, turned out to be a mere 
scare — all talk and little action. V 

Six days before that of the projected meeting of the 
Chartists, the Queen wrote to her nncle Leopold: 
"From the first I heard all that passed, and my only 
thoughts and talk were i)olitics. But I never was calm- 
er aud quieter, or less nervous. Great events make me 
%ilm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves. " The 
King of the Belgians, like his niece of England, could be 
calm in the face of great events. When his kingdom 
was threatened with subversion, he turned confidently 
to his subjects and told them fairly that if they desired 
him not to reign over them, he was perfectly ready to 
withdraw, upon which thej^ one aud all declared for 
their king, completely won by his manly frankness. 

England had still Ireland to deal with, the "Young 
Ireland" urged forward by Smith O'Brien (who, Mr. Mc- 
Carthy says, was undoubtedly a descendant of Brian 
Boru, the famous ancient King of Ireland) and by 
Mr. Mengher. O'Brien's distinction of descent, his fam- 
ily prestige us the brother of Lord Inchinquin, in whose 
family was the Marquisate of Thomond, an(^. his years 
were counterbalanced by the fiery eloquence oi Meagher, 
which, poured into people's ears, inspired tl^^IlJ to furious 
action. But a people who had just been f:Vjpj3ted by a 
famine were not in good form to proce/^d to war with a 
nation of immense power and resource. *'Ko''«3 a county 
in Ireland," says Justin McCarthy," wholly escaped the 
potato disease, and many of the sou'LOo^.n and western 
counties were soon in actual famine. A jieculiar form of 
fever — famine fever, it was called— beg^an to show itself 
-very where. A terrible dysentery (j:et in as well. In 
some districts the people died m hur^drods daily from 
fever, dysentery, or sheer ^UiTV^tiov.. It wMild liave 
been impossible that in such a cciintry as Ii e^^i^^c^ a fam- 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 183 

ine of that gigautic kind should set in without bringing 
crimes of violence along \vij:li it." 

It would have also been imi^ossible for a people lately 
come through a gigantic famine to carry out successfully 
a gigantic war. The Irisli rebellion proved but a flash in 
the pan, and Smith O'Brien, Mitchel, Meagher, and the 
other leaders were soon on their way to Australia and 
otlier points under sentence of transportation. 

The Chartist leaders were tried for sedition, and were 
sent to prison for a period. Louis Philippe and his fam- 
ily were at Claremont, Louis Kapoleon had slipped over 
to France to lielp on the Eepublic, and the Queen had 
purchased Balmoral and had gone there with her family 
for a season of rest in its solitudes. Of this the Prince 
wrote: "We have withdrawn for a short period into 
complete mountain solitude, where one rarely sees a 
human face, wliere the snow already (September) covers 
the mountain-tops, and the wild deer come creeping 
stealthily around the house. The castle is of granite,with 
numerous small turrets, and is situated on a rising- 
ground, surrounded by birchwood, and close to the river 
Dee. The air is glorious and clear, but icy cold." 

Her Majesty had need of her high courage. May l9th, 
1849, when she was again shot at by an Irish laborer 
named Hamilton. The Queen had reached Constitution 
Hill (where twice before she was fired at), accompanied 
by her chidren, in an open carriage, when the attack 
was made. She was perfectly self-possessed, and very 
calml}^ she tranquillized her children's fears, ordering 
the carriage to be driven on. Investigation proved 
that the pistol was charged only with powder. The cul- 
prit was sentenced to transportation for seven years. 
This attack seemed to revive the mania for assailing the 
Queen. Kext year. May 27th, Eobert Pate, who had been 
a Lieutenant of Hussars, struck her in the face while 
she was at the door of the Duke of Cambridge's house. 



184 FIFTY YEARS A QUEElS". 

This mau was also transported for seven years. Three 
months later Louis Philipi:>e. died at Olaremont. More 
than fifty years before, during the vicissitudes of his 
life while in exile, he had lived at another Claremont on 
the Bloomingdale road in the viciuit}^ of 'New York. Tlie 
American Olaremont was named after the English x^lace 
where he closed his checkered life. He had known the 
English Olaremont well when it was the residence of 
Prince Leopold and his wife the Princess Oharlotte of 
Wales. It was a i)lace celebrated for its beauty; and very 
charming too was its namesake in Bloomingdale, with 
noble wide-spreading trees and fine grounds extending 
down to the Hudson river. It was still a lovely spot 
long after Louis Philipi)e left it when it becaone a "road- 
side house" (which it still is) and many have forgotten 
why it was called Olaremont. Outside of his own fam- 
ily, there were few to mourn the ex-King of the French. 
One, at any rate rejoiced over it, as Lord Palmerston 
wrote: "The death of Louis Philii)pe delivers me from 
my most artful and inveterate enemy, whose position 
gave him in many ways the power to injure me," 

Oardiual Wiseman's ai)pointment by the Pope as Arch- 
bishop of Westminster created some stir. It furnished 
an ox)portunity for a small tumult on the question of 
Popery or no Popery, and as certain acts were per- 
formed on "Ouy Faux's" day, the time was deemed fit- 
ting for burning in effigy both the Pope and Oardinal 
Wiseman. The new Parliament undertook to pass cer- 
tain laws relative to tlie taking of titles by Boman Oatho- 
lics from an 3^ j^lace within the United Kingdom. This 
movement was characterized as, "one of the meanest, 
pettiest, and most futile measures that ever disgraced 
even bigotry itself." Disraeli called it "a mere piece of 
petty persecution." 

The Queen had a grievance on the subject of Lord Pal- 
merston, who at times was minded to take his own way 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 185 

without heeding her; upon this point, while directiug 
foreign affairs, it was displeasing to her. The question 
came up in Parliament. Lord John Eussell made a 
powerful speech that seemed to dispose of Palmerston. 
Disraeli said, "there was a Palmerston." But Palmer- 
ston seemed quite content, and promised Kussell.a "tit 
for his tat." lu December, 1851, Lord Joliu Eussell had 
forced Lord Palmerston to leaA^e the foreign office. In 
February, 1852, Palmerston compelled llussell's resig- 
nation as Prime Minister, thus redeeming his promise. 

Louis l^apoleou, who had put down the baton of a spe- 
cial constable in England, had done famously in France. 
So well had he progressed that on the second of Decem- 
ber, 1851, having gained power enough to sustain the 
movement, " he sized and imprisoned all his political 
opponents. Tiie next day he bore down with the most 
savage violence all possible oppositions. Paris was in 
the hands of his soldiers; hundreds of helpless people 
were slaughtered, the streets of Paris ran with Wood, 
Louis E^apoleon, proclaimed himself Prince President. 
This was the coup d'etat."" So says McCarthy. 

With the way prepared, the coup d'etat was followed 
by the Plebiscite, and that was followed again by the 
Empire restored; and Louis E"apoleon was Napoleon III., 
seated on the throne of France. At the head of his 
twenty legions he might have invaded England; might 
have carried out the policy of his great uncle and 
humiliated that proud nation ; might indeed have wreaked 
revenge on her for the ruin she brought Napoleon I. But 
Napoleon 111. had other views. He was not fighting for 
dead men or dead issues. He was fighting for a living 
man and for such advantages as could be gotten for him 
—himself. England was more valuable as an ally than 
as an opponent, and an ally he resolved she should be. 
While Louis Napoleon was going through the several 
stages that finally brought him to the French throne, 



186 FIB'TY YEARS A QUEElf. 

Euglaud was alarmed and troubled. The Queen, how- 
ever, cautioned her ministers to remain perfectly neutral. 
^N'othing therefore was done to impair the harmony of 
England toward France, a most convenient condition in- 
deed when the Eastern question came up, and the 
interest of France and England became one against 
Eussia. 

When the Turkish fleet at Si nope was destroyed 
by the Russians, France and England confronted Eussia 
with the declaration that they were resolved to x^revent 
another such catastrophe, upon whi(^h the Emperor 
Nicholas recalled his ministers from Paris and London, 
and the Crimean War was as good as begun, with France 
and England as allies. 

For many years, except at christenings, etc., little had 
been seen of the Duchess of Kent. It is quite probable 
that one of lier sterling good sense iiad resolved to be as 
impersonal as x)ossible, and give to the percentage of 
people ever ready to cavil, the least possible oi^portunitj^ 
to condemn "Coburgers" on the score of interfering 
with affciirs strictly Englisli. 

With tlie Queen downger, Good Qneen Adehiide, the 
Duchess of Kent liad an attached and faithful friend- 
sliip. They had been fast friends from their first meet- 
ing in England. Tiiey were married on the same day. 
The children of Adelaide had died. Tiie daughter of the 
Dnchess of Kent liad lived and ascended the throne. But 
so far from exhibiting petty jealousy was this sweet- 
tempered, good-hearted woman, that she loved the 
Duchess, her sister in-law, and the niece, who gained 
the crown that a child of her own might have worn, loved 
them very fondly. At the death of the Queen Dowager 
the royal family were greatly grieved She was a favor- 
ite of the Prince, and had always been loved b}^ 
the Queen who wrote : "She was truly motherly 
in her kindness to us and to our children. Pool 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 187 

mamma is very much cut uj) by this sad eveut. To 
her the Queen is a great and serious loss. 

The Duke of Sussex had died previous to this time, 
very unwillingly, poor old man; while in the case of the 
Queen Dowager, she was hapi)y to he released from her 
long suffering. She had never particularly cared for 
state and station, and now, at her death, she desired 
that her funeral should be a private one, and that her 
cof&n should be borne by sailors, as her husband had 
been a sailor. 

The Queen made her long-delayed and frequently- 
deferred visits to Ireland in 1849, accompanied by the 
Prince, Princess Eoyal, Prince of Wales, and Prince 
Alfred. From the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert they 
landed at Cork Harbor , w^hich has ever since been 
known as Queenstown, in honor of her Majesty's visit, 
and were received with every demonstration of loyalty 
by the people. In every part of Ireland visited by the 
Queen the same loyal devotion was evinced, and she re- 
turned from her visit to that portion of her possessions 
greatly i)leased with the warm reception given her by 
the peoide. It was somewhat of a surprise to many who 
had predicted danger to tlie Queen in venturing into 
that disturbed country and among its risky inhabitants. 
They had looked for something entirely different. 

As a compliment to Ireland the Prince of Wales was 
created Earl of Dublin; and a sou born to the Queen and 
Prince on the first of May following received among 
other names that of Patrick, a greater comi)liment still. 
Prince Albert announced the birth of this child to the 
Dowager Duchess of Ooburg with much wit. "This 
morning," he says, "after a rather restless night (being 
Walpurgis night, that was very appropriate), and while 
the witches were careering on the Blocksberg, under 
Ernest Augustus mild sceptre, a little boy glided into 
the light of day, and has been received by the sisters 



188 FIFTY YEARS A QUEBN. 

witli jubilates. * Now we are just as many as the days of 
the week !' was the cry; and a bit of a struggle arose as 
to who was to he Sunday. Out of well-hred courtesy 
the honor was conceded to the new-comer. Victoria is 
well and so is the child." 

The four names given tlie young Prince were respect- 
ively, Arthur in honor of the Duke of Wellington, Wil- 
liam, after the present Emi^eror of Germany, at that 
time Prince of Prussia, Patrick after Ireland's patron 
saint," and Albert after the Queen's "angel of goodness,'* 
the father whom she fervently prayed that every child of 
hers might resemble. 

The following Autumn was passed by the Queen and 
royal family in Scotland. After the birth of the Prince 
of Wales, her Majesty had written to the King of the 
Belgians announcing their arrival at Windsor, with" their 
awfully large nursery." Now indeed the nursery was 
large. Young voices woke the echoes ia old Holyrood 
Palace, where for a while the Queen ttfi-ried before pro- 
ceeding to Balmoral, wliere "they were trying to streng- 
tiien their hearts amid the stillness an^l solemnity of the 
mountains." Balmoral and Osborne yielded to tlie Queen 
and Prince the greatest enjoj^meutj both places were 
entirely their own i)ossessions. B(>ytli were charming in 
their different ways of sea and mowitain landscape. Each 
afforded rest and retirement In the most agreeable 
manner. Their beauties were mainly of the Prince's 
creation, in the way of embelli;v/;ment— adear delight to 
him, and a still greater one to //is wife, to whom every 
charm added was one multii)lie''} because tAey were of his 
devising. 

In April, 1853, another son was born adding to the 
royal family groui3 the Duke of Albauj^ —now deceased. 
He was named Leopold George Duncan Albert. En- 
couraged by her former visit, the <iueen and Prince 
went this year to Ireland to open the Industrial Exhi- 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 189 

bitiou at Dublin, aud again tliey were received witii 
affectionate loyalty. In addition to the name of Patrick 
given to the son of lier Majesty born after her first visit, 
be was also made Duke of Connaught, wbick pleased 
the Irish people greatly. 

Nearer and nearer came the thunders of the Crimean 
war. Prince Albert wrote: "We should be happy here" 
(at Balmoral) were it not for the horrible Eastern com- 
plication. A European war would be a terrible calamity. 
It will not do to give up all hope; still what we "have 
is small." 

In 1854, war considerations had taken possession of 
tlie Queen and the nation. In March, 1854, the Queen 
wrote to Lord Aberdeen : "We are just starting to see 
the fleet, which is to sail at once for its important des- 
tination. It will be a solemn moment ! Many a heart 
will be heavy, aud many a prayer, including our own, 
will be offered up for its safety and glory." 

Soon the Queen's heart was made more heavy than 
any war consideration could have made it. A blow had 
fallen directly on her heart. She was pierced to the 
soul by attacks made upon her husband — attacks of the 
most virulent nature, and wholly unjustified by any 
action of that most blameless man. A wild rumor had 
gone out that he was favoring Prussian or Russian in- 
terests or both, to the detriment of the interests of 
England; that he was leading the Queen in the same 
direction, that Baron Stockmar was leagued with him, 
and tljat a deep-laid plot concocted by the Prince aided 
by the Baron, would bring ruin to England. To this 
effect was the tidings that took wings and flew to the 
corners of England, Scotland and Ireland. For a while 
the Queen suffered the greatest anguish. Parliament 
investigated the rumor— too vague to be called a charge, 
—and found it without foundation. Then disappeared 
what had been but "the baseless fabric of a vision," 



190 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

voiced l)y some malcontent and carried away on the 
wings of tlie wind for circnlatiou. 

Being foreigners, the Prince and the Baron were sub- 
jects of siispicioii, for which their foreign birth formed 
the only foundation. Both were loyal to the best in- 
terests of England, and both were men of ability, which 
they closely devoted to its service, a fact which the 
Queen knew very well — no one better; and she appre- 
ciated taat ability as no one else could do. England's 
mighty commander, and the Queen's devoted friend the 
Duke of Wellington, had passed beyond the alarms of 
war. He died before the development of this one. 

On March 3d, the Queen sat on her throne in the 
House of Lords, waiting for the answer of both Houses 
to her declaration of war sent to Parliament. It was 
responsive to the need of the situation. 

Frederick William of Prussia had written to her 
Majesty of England endeavoring to induce her to make 
concessions to the Emperor of Eussia that might avert 
the war. To that King she replied with kindness and 
firmness justifying England's position, and quoting from 
Shakespeare : 

** Beware 
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, 
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee." 

In the quarrel England was enlisted. The Queen her- 
self christened a fine war ship, the Albert^ and she says: 
" I am very enthusiastic about my dear army and navy, 
and I wish I had two sons in both now." 

In the later months of the year, the Prince consort 
made a short visit to the Em^Dcror of the French at Bou- 
logne. The troox)S of France and England were now 
side by side arrayed in battle, and the Queen and Prince 
desired to make acquaintance with their ally. The 
Prince writes the Queen : " The Emperor thaws more and 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 191 

more. He told me one of the deepest impressions ever 
made upon liim, was when he arrived in London, shortly 
after King William's death, and saw you, at the age of 
eighteen, going to open Parliament for the first time." 

In 1855, Nicholas, the Ozar of all the Eussians, closed 
a life filled witb great power, opportunity and unhappi- 
ness. It has been said that his lieart broke when tlie 
loss of Sebastopol became imminent. Pulmonary ap<> 
idexy was assigned as the cause of tbe death, which oc- 
curred on tbe 2rid of March, 1855. Tbe generals upon 
whom Nicbolas bad relied to deal witb tbe Freucli inid 
English forces, " General Janvier and General Fevrier" 
— January and February — would seem to have dealt 
with him. Most extraordinary hardsliips tbe forces of 
the Western powers suffered, and thousands sunk and 
died under them. Justin McCarthy's representation of 
tbe condition of the soldiers and sailors is terrible in its 
vividness. Equally appalling is his account of the con- 
dition of the wounded in the hospitals of Scutari before 
Florence ^Nightingale and lier band of high-born women 
and tbeir women assistants took charge, bringing order 
out of chaos, and saving thousands upon thousands of 
lives, besides comforting the last moments of the thous- 
ands who died. 

Queen Victoria received the tidings of the Emperor of 
Eussia's death with manifestations of sorrow. It 
was a great shock to all England. But there was 
an excitement too in receiving tbe Emperor of tbe 
French, who had come w^ith bis lovely Empress to 
visit tbe Queen. Queen Victoria gives this discription 
of her reception of the French Emperor and his bride: 
" I stepped out, the children close behind me; the band 
struck up * Partant pour la Syne' " (the favorite air of 
Queen Hortensee, the Emperor's mother), " the trumpets 
sounded, and the open carriage, with tbe Emperor and 
Empress, Albert sitting opposite to them, drove up and 



192 I^IFTY YEARS A QUEE^N^. 

they got out. I advanced and embraced the Emperor, 
who received two salutes on either cheek from me — hav- 
ing first kissed my hand." I then embraced the Em- 
press, who was gentle and graceful, hut evidently 
nervous, Yicky, with alarmed eyes, making very low 
courtesies, and Bertie receiving an embrace from the 
Emperor. " The Prince Consort conducted the Empress 
up stairs, the Queen following, on the arm of the Em- 
peror. At Windsor Castle the suite of rooms Avhich 
awhile ago had been set ax)art for the use of the Em- 
X^eror of Eussia and of Louis Philippe, when he was 
King of the French, while visiting the Queen, now re- 
ceiv^ed the Emperor, who has taken the idace of one, 
and assisted in conquering the other. 

The Queen found Napoleon III., " civil, well-bred, and 
full of tact," and the Empress " full of courage and 
spirit, and yet so gentle and with such innocence." At 
the State ball given in honor of the Emperor and Em- 
press, the Queen danced with the Emperor, of which she 
wrote afterwards: " How strange to think tliat 1, the 
granddaughter of George III , should dance with tbe 
Emi)eror JN'apoleon III. — Kepbew of England's greatest 
enemy, now my dearest and most intimate ally — in the 
Waterloo Boom, and this ally onl^^ six years ago living in 
this country an exile, i)Oor and unthought-of !" 

At the opera the Queen i)resented Louis Napoleon to 
the audience, as she liad done the Emperor of Eussia 
when he attended with her at the time of his last visit to 
England, and as the Emperor Nicholas and Louis 
Philippe had received the Order of the Garter at her 
Majesty's hands, so now did the Emi)eror Napoleon III. 
The Empress Eugene was also presented to the audi- 
ence by the Prince Consort. She was very beautiful, 
arid they were enthusiastic. 

London received with great cordiality the ally of 
England, who had helped her to win victory. Tlie Era^ 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 193 

peror ami Empress of tlie Freucli were banquetted at 
Guildliall. The Lord Mayor, in his robes of office, re- 
ceived tbem; tbej^ were loyally toasted; and the streets 
of London were illuminated in tbeir honor. 

After he reached France Napoleon wrote to Queen 
Victoria: " Your Majesty has touched me to the heart 
by the delicacy of the consideration shown to the Em- 
l^ress; for nothing- pleases us more than to see the 
person one loves become the object of such flattering at- 
tentions." 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE QUEEN IS INFORMED OF THE FALL OF SEBASTO- 
POL — BETROTHAL OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL TO PRINCE 
FREDERICK WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA.— HER MAJESTY'S 
FIRST VISIT TO NAPOLEON III.— QUEEN VICTORIA MAKES 
HER TOILET FOR A BALL AT VERSAILLES IN MARIE 
ANTOINETTE'S BOUDOIR —THE EMPRESS EUGENIE 
DRESSED FOR A BALL— BIRTH OF THE PRINCESS BEA- 
TRICE —MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL— THE SEPOY 
REBELLION —THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF BELGIUM — 
A MAXIMILIAN OF AUSTRIA AT THE ENGLISH COURT — 
THE QUEEN'S FIRST GRANDCHILD— BETROTHAL OF THE 
PRINCESS ALICE TO PRINCE LOUIS OF HESSE-DARM- 
STADT. 

After Laving taken possession of lier new castle at 
Balmoral, the Queen received there tlie tidings of the 
fall of Sebastopol. The Russian's said: "It is not Se- 
l)astoi)ol which we leave to them, but the burning ruins 
of the town which we ourselves set fire to, having main- 
tained the honor of the defence in such a manner that 
our great-grandcliildren may recall with pride tlie re- 
membrance of it, and send it on to posterity." The de- 
fence was a gallant one, long and stubbornly maintained, 
but the citadel had fallen, and the great war was virtu- 
ally ended. 

The Emperor of Germany, when Prince of Eussin, had 
been frequently a guest at the Court of England. Be- 
194 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEJf. 195 

tween the Queen, the Prince, and him there was a very 
cordial feeling of friendship, now to be made closer by 
the betrothal of his son, Prince Frederick William of 
Prussia, to the Queen's eldest daughter, the Princess 
lloyal of Englaud. 

The royal mother gives tliis account of the betrothnl. 
" Our dear Victoria was this day engaged to Prince 
Frederick William of Prussia. He had already s2)ol< en 
to us of his wishes, but we were uncertain, on account 
of her extreme youth, whether he should speak to her or 
wait till he should come back again. However, we felt 
it was better that he sliould do so, and during our ride 
np Craig na-Bau this afternoon, he picked a piece of 
white heather (the emblem of good luck) which he gave 
her." The Prince's offer was accepted, and it was de- 
cided that the wedding should take place after the 
seventeenth birthday of the Princess. 

Before that event, however, the Queen, the Prince 
Consort, the Prince of Wales, and the Princess Eoyal 
went over to France on a visit to the Emperor and Em- 
press of tlie French. The visits of the English Queen 
to Louis Philippe had been made at Treport. This one 
was to be made at Paris, which on this occasion she en- 
tered for the first time. 

At the Palace of St. Cloud, Queen Victoria was re- 
ceived by the Emi)ress Eugenie, who was then in the 
pride of her young beauty, assisted by the Princess 
Mathilde and others of her suite, and conducted upstairs, 
" feeling quite bewildered," as she said, " but encliant- 
ed." 

Paris was illuminated on her arrival, in honor of the 
Queen of England. All its charms ATcre enhanced by 
decoration, done in the exquisite manner peculiar to the 
French; and it was made more gay by the vast crowds 
thronging the streets bent upon obtaining a glimpse of 
the great Quoen come to visit them. Paris was exhibit- 
ed to her Majesty in all its int(Mesting points. She was 



196 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEjN-. 

sliown tlie Palais de Justice, tlie dreadful Conciergerie, 
where poor Marie Antoiuette passed lier last miserable 
hours on earth, aud other scenes of the reign of terror, 
as well as the beautiful spots in Paris, with which she 
was delighted. 

A State ball was given the English royalties in the 
Palace of Versailles, upon which occasion Queen Victoria 
"made her toilet in Marie Antoinette's boudoir," so 
Prince Albert wrote the King of Belgium. In the 
same mirrors that had reflected back that hapless queen's 
beauty when she was dressing to appear at n fete at Ver- 
sailles, Victoria was now looking while adorning lier 
own person for a similar i)urpose. To have occupied 
that room under such circumstances was surel^^ more 
creditable to her Majesty's strength of nerve than to the 
delicacy of her sensibilities. Her j)resence there could 
scarcely be pleasing to the uncle Leopold to whom the 
Prince wrote of it — if royal persons were supposed to 
consult their feelings. The last occupants of the Eoyal 
Palaces of France before the present dynasty came in 
had been the family of Louise of Orleans, his wife, whom 
Victoria had so loved. At this time she was dead, and 
could not be pained by the changes which had made her 
husband's favorite niece the guest of the successors to 
the Orleau's line in the palaces that had belonged to her 
family. 

The ball was a superb affair, quite worthy of roy;ilty. 
To make it a triumph every accessor}^ that Parisian re- 
source could lend had been called into requisition. In 
the best bloom of her wonderful loveliness, the Empress 
was passing beautiful. For this grand ball in honor of 
so august a guest as the Queen of England, every one of 
her charms had been hightened to the extent possible. 

Queen Victoria says; "The Em[)ress met us at the 
top of the staircase, looking like a fairy queen, or nympli 
in a white dress, trimmed with grass and diamonds, a 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN^. 19? 

beautiful tour de corsage of diamouds round the top of 
lier dress, the same round her waist, and a correspond- 
ing coift'ure, with lier Spanish and Portuguese Orders." 

At ])arting tlie Empress gave the Queen a " beautiful 
fan, and a rose and heliotrope from the garden, and to 
*Yicky' a bracelet set with rubies and diamonds, con- 
taining her liair, witli which Yicky was deliglited." 

The birth of the Prince Imperial at the Tuileries later 
on was an event regarded important in London, as well 
as in Paris. In England this young Prince was yet to 
find an asylum together with his father and mother, as 
the Orleans family had done; and from it an outlet that 
carried him to his death at the hands of the Zulus. 

Prince Albert has another announcement to make to 
his stepmother in Coburg, of the advent of a baby in his 
family. This baby is now the Princess Henry of Batten- 
berg, and the mother of a baby herself. She was born 
in Buckingham Palace, April l4th, 1857. Of her the 
Prince Consort wrote: " The baby is thriving famously, 
and is prettier than babies usually are. Mamma, aunt 
Vicky, and her bridegroom are to be the little one's 
sponsors, and slie is to receive the historical, romantic, 
euphonious, and melodious names of Beatrice Marj^ Vic- 
toria Feodora." 

The Queen's family circle was now^ to be broken by 
the marriage and loss from it of her eldest child. Al- 
ready the Queen had the sorrow of losing by death, her 
only brother the Prince of Leiningen— The Duchess of 
Kent, her only son. The young Princess, however, was 
but following the dictates of nature and of her own heart 
in her marriage now approaching. Soon the time would 
arrive when she must go to her home away from Eng- 
land; but she was to find another in a x)rosperous and 
powerful country — welcomed by a people whose Empress 
she will probably be. 



198 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEK. 

As the (la3M)f her weddiijg (Jan luiry 25fch, 1858) drew 
near, her father says: " Yicky siiifers iiuder tlie feeling 
that ever}' spot she visits slie has greeted for the last 
time as home." The royal family were then at Balmoral, 
of which the Prince wrote: " The departure from here 
will be a great trinl to ns all, especially to Yicky, who 
leaves it for good and all; and the good simple High- 
landers, who are fond of us, are constantly saying to her, 
and often with tears, *I suppose we shall never see you 
again?' which naturally makes her feel more keenly." 

The Queen says of the bridegroom's arrival: "I met 
Mm at the bottom of the staircase very warmly; he was 
pale and nervous. At the top of the staircase, Vicky 
received him, with Alice." Feeling very closely with 
her daughter the royal mother says: "It was the sec- 
ond most eventful day of my life as regards feelings; I 
felt as if I were being married over again myself. While 
dressing, dearest Vicky came in to see me, looking well 
and composed." 

In the royal bridal cortege to the Ciiapel Royal, of St. 
James's Palace were numerous royal tys and Serene 
Highness's. The Prince Consort rode with King Leo- 
pold of Belgium, followed by the Prince of Wales and 
the Duke of Edinburgh. Three sisters of the bride, the 
Princes Alice, Helena, and Louise, followed. Eight 
highborn maidens in white tulle were the brides maids. 
They wore white roses and white heather — the betrothal 
flovver presented by the Prince on Craig ua-Bau to the 
Princess. 

As her mother had accompanied the Queen on her 
Avedding day, she is now with her daughter on the way 
to the altar. Her Majesty is resplendent in her royal 
robes, and the Princess very sweet in her magnificent 
bridal dress. The lace had been wrought for the occas- 
sion with the rose, the thistle, and the shamrock (emble- 
matic of the three kingdoms) appearing in the delicate 



^FTY YEARS A QUEKN. 199 

wel). Tlie Ducliess of Kent "looked 1 mud some," so tbe 
Queen said, "in violet velvet trinjmed with ermiue." 
The first kiss ^iveii hy the bride after the ceremony was 
to her grandmother, as the Queen had kissed the dow- 
ager Queen Adelaide after she was married. 

The Prince and Princess went to Windsor Castle to 
pass their honeymoon, and were there joined after a few 
days by the Queen, the Court, and many of the guests 
present at the wedding. A series ot^ fetes were given in 
honor of the event, both at Windsor and in London ; and 
the royal mother is fond, in a way peculiar to mothers, 
engaged with tlie concernsof her child in the circumstan- 
ces. 

*' We took a short walk," the Queen says, "with Yicky, 
who was dreadfully upset at this real break in her life; 
the real separation from her childhood." "Ernest 
(the Duke of Coburg) said it seemed like a dream to see 
Yicky dance as a bride, just as I did eighteen years ago, 
and still (so he said) looking very young. In 1840, poor 
dear papa danced with me, as Ernest danced with Vicky 
now." 

With motherly interest her Majesty inspected the 
rooms prepared for "Vicky's" honeymoon and pro- 
nounced them "very pretty." 

On the day before that on which the Princess was to 
leave England for Prussia, her home in tlie future, the 
Queen says: "The last day of our dear child being with 
us, which is incredible, and makes me feel at times quite 
sick at heart Vicky came with a very sad face to my 
room. Here we embraced each other tenderly and our 
tears flowed fast." Of the final parting the Queen says. 
"A dreadful moment and a dreadful day ! Such sickness 
came over me— real heart-ache, when I thought of our 
dearest child being gone and for so long. It began to 



200 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEiS". 

snow before tliey went, and continued to do so without 
intermission all da^^" 

The dear little bride, though going nwny with a heart 
filled with love in her new relations, felt the parting from 
her home and family keenly; the loved sisters, and 
brothers, grandmother, fatlier and mother, and friends. 
Of the father, to whom she Avas devotedly attached, she 
said to her mother: "I tliink it will kill me to take 
leave of dear papa." From the otlierside came the 
cheering telegram from Prince Frederick William. "The 
whole royal family is enchanted with my wife; " and 
those in England who loved lier knew that it was well 
with the Princess Avho bad received the sprig of white 
heather on Oraig-na-Bau "for good luck." 

But while there is marrying and giving in marriage in 
England, there is carnage and death in India. It is the 
year of the terrible Sepoy rebellion; of the diabolical 
acts of E"ana Sahib, of the horrors of Oawnpore; and 
of the relief of Lucknow — the relief after untold atroci- 
ties had been committed upon English men, women, and 
children — the mere thouglit of which makes the blood run 
cold — the heart turn sick with awe. 

It is the year in which the Italian Orsini attempted 
the assassination of the Emperor and Empress of the 
French by throwing a li and- grenade under the carriage 
in which they were riding, as it approached the entrance 
to the Italian oj)era. Many persons were killed by 
Orsini's act undesignedly, while the Emi)eror whom he 
intended to kill escaped with slight injury. 

The courage which Queen Victoria had discerned the 
Empress to be possessed of,was that night i)roved. With 
the Emperor she entered the Opera House, proceeded 
to the royal box, and sat out the performance, her white 
dress spotted with the blood of the people who had been 
killed near her, by the missile intended to deal death to 



FIFTY YEARS A QUfilEiy. 201 

lier hnsbaiid and to Lerself. Tliat courage was i)roved 
again after the disaster of Sedan and pronounced heroic ! 

It was before the marriage of the Princess Royal that 
their cousin the Princess Charlotte of Belgium, the 
daughter of "Uncle Leopold," paid a visit tolier cousins, 
the Queen of England, and the Prince consort. With 
lier came her betrothed husband, Maximilian, Archduke 
of Austria, and an exceedingly happy pair of royal lovers 
they were, poor souls, without a thought of the dreadful 
future in store of them. 

The Queen and Prince were delighted with their 
visitors. It Avas said by the Prince: "Charlotte's whole 
being seems tome to have been warmed and unfolded by 
the love which is kindled in herhenrt;" and he wished 
his uncle Leopold "joy at having got such a husband for 
dear Charlotte, as I am quite sure he is worthy of her, 
and will make her happy. " 

The Queen could not be present at the wedding of 
Maximilian and Charlotte, so the Prince Consort went 
without his wife who writes to her Uncle King Leopold: 
"You cannot think how completely forlorn I feel when 
he is away, or how I count the hours till he returns, all 
the children are as nothing when he is away. It seems 
as if the whole life of the house and home were gone." 

The Queen had made other friendly" calls upon her 
good brother and ally, the Emperor I^apoleon III. The 
visit to Paris and the result of their alliance against 
Russia had been pleasant things in her mind, the Em- 
press had been so sweet and so very charming, the Em- 
peror so polite. "Nothing," the Queen said, "can be 
more civil and well-bred, than the Emperor's manner — 
so full of tact." 

After Napoleon's alliance with King Yictor Emmanuel 
in the war against Austria came to light, her "good 
brother of France" assumed a different aspect in the 



202 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEI^. 

eyes of Queen Victoria. She bad had faith in him . The 
Prince distrusted him. 

To the Queen the fate of her cousin Charlotte was a 
great affliction. When lier young husband Maximilian 
had been lured by ambition and the counsel of Napoleon 
in. (supposed then to li old in the hollow of his hand 
the destines of Europe), to wear the fatal crown of the 
Montezumas for a brief time, she was tlie Empress of 
Mexico — Emperor and Empress for a little while, hold- 
ing their new court with its splendors. Then followed 
the recall of the French troops that upheld the new 
dynasty, Maximilian's danger, and the frantic efforts of 
his wife to aid him. Charlotte's visits to France — to 
Rome — to Belgium. Suing to Napoleon — to the Pope — 
to her own brother for the money which, although it was 
lier own, he could not give her. 

As each of her brave efforts failed, what must she not 
have endured of agony? Inspired by the holiest love 
and haunted 1)}^ killing fears, the knowledge of the 
ghastly ending was mercifully spared her. Of that last 
act she remained happily unconsious. Though living, 
she is unconscious of it still. 

The time has not come when the priest that attended 
Maximilian in the hour of his death could carry out his 
last message to his wife. It was his watch, with "j^oor 
Charlotte's" likeness set in its case, that he entrusted 
for transmission to her, saying,"carry this souvenir to my 
dear wife in Europe, and if she ever be able to understand 
you, say that my eyes closed with the impression of her 
image which I shall carry with me above." 

Queen Victoria says with regard to the daughter 
married and gone from her: "Her heart often yearns 
for home and those she loves dearl}^ — above all, her 
dear i)apa, for whom she has a worship which is touching 
and delightful to see. " Four months after her marriage 
her father paid her a visit in her German home and 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 203 

found lier liappy tlieie. Then the Queen aud Prince 
l)aid together a visit, of which the Queen says: "There 
on the platform stood our darling child, with a nosegaj- 
in lierhand. She stei)ped in, and long and warm was 
the embrace, so much to Siiy nnd to tell and ask. yet so 
unaltered— looking well -quite the old Vicky still." 
Aud later she says: "Yicky came and sat with me. I 
felt as if she were my own again." 

The birth of a grandson to the Queen and Prince was 
flashed in due course of time over the wires, and "Vicky 
and the baby were doing well ;" and on May 24th, follow- 
ing that happy event the young mother had come to 
England to join in the celebration of her mother's 
birthday. "Dear Vicky," the Queen wrote, "is a charm- 
ing companion." Again, in November, Prince Frederick 
William visited England with his wife. The Princess's 
father said: "Vicky has developed greatly of late — 
and yet remains quite a child;" and her husband, "quite 
delighted us." 

On July 24th, 1860, a telegram from the Crown Prince 
announcing that "Vicky had got a daughter at 8.10, and 
both doing well." "What joy I Children jumping 
about, everyone delighted, so thankful and relieved," 
said the Queen. 

The Prince Consort wrote to his daughter and son-in- 
law: "The little girl must be a darling. Little girls are 
much x>rettier than boys. I advise her to model herself 
after her aunt Beatrice. That excellent lady has now 
not a moment to spare. *I have no time,' she says, when 
asked for anything, *I must write letters to my niece.' " 
In September of that year the Queen accompanied by 
the Prince and Princess Alice went to German}^ to see 
her children and grandchildren. She found her grand- 
son "Such a little love, a fine fat child, with a beiUitiful 
soft, white skin, very fine shoulders and limbs, and a 
very dear face." He had, she said, "Fritz's eyes and 



204 FIFTY YEARS A QUEKK. 

Vicky's moutli, and fair cuiliDg liair." She found liiin 
a darling and very intelligent, and lie came to see her 
every morning. 

As a fruit of this German visit her Majesty was in a 
fair way to acquire another son-in-law. At Mayence the 
royal i)arty were visited by the Prince and Princess of 
Hesse-Dramstadt, and between these parents and them- 
selves it was agreed that their son, Prince Louis of 
riesse, shonld come over to England and see more of the 
Princess Alice, as he greatly desired. 

He did visit Windsor in November, with the following 
result as given by the Queen: "After dinner, while 
talking to the gentleman, I perceived Alice and Louis 
talking before the fireplace more earnestly than usual, 
and when I passed to go to the other room, both came up 
to me, and Alice, in much agitation, said he had proposed 
to her, and he begged for my blessing. I could only 
squeeze his hand and say 'certainl3",' and that we should 
see him in my room later. Got through the evening 
working as well as we could. Alice came to onr room. 
Albert sent for Louis to his room, then called Alice and 
me in. Louis has a warm, noble heart. We embraced 
our dear Alice, and praised her much to him. lie press- 
ed and kissed m^^ hand, and I embraced him." The 
betrothal was made, and the Princess Alice was to 
reign in Germany in the near future, like her sister the 
Crown Princess, though not prospectively on so grand a 
scale. 



\ 



CHAPTER XXm. 



THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNIVEBSA.RY OF THE QUEEN AND 
PRINCE'S MARRIAGE— DEATH OF THE DUCHESS OF KENT 
— INCIDENTS IN HER MAJESTY'S HOME LIFE— A MERRY 
SCENE AT THE SWISS COTTAGE —THE ROYAL CHILDREN 
MENTIONED BY THE PRINCE— THE PRINCE OF WALES IN 
AMERICA — CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES— DEATH 
OF PRINCE ALBERT -SCENES AT THE TIME OF HIS SICK- 
NESS AND DEATH— FEARS FOR THE QUEEN— NORMAN 
MCLEOD VISITS THE QUEEN AT BALMORAL — MARRIAGE 
OF THE PRINCE OF WALES — HER MAJESTY'S FIRST AP. 
PEARANCE AT FESTIVITIES SINCE HER WIDOWHOOD — 
MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS LOUISE AND THE MARQUIS 
OF LORNE. 

The day previous to the tweuty-first auuiversary of 
tbe marriage of the Queen and Prince, the latter wrote 
the Duchess of Kent: "To-morrow our marriage will be 
twenty-one years old. How many storms have swept 
over it, and yet it continues green and fresli." Tlie 
next da^', Sunday, February 10th, he saj's to the Duchess: 
"To-day our marriage comes of age according to law. 
We have faithfully kept our pledge, * for better and for 
worse,' and have only to thank God that He has vouch- 
safed so much happiness to us. May He have us iu His 
keei)ing for days to come ! You have, I trust, found 
good and loving children in us, and we have exi>erienced 
nuthiiig but Ionc and kindness from yon." 

205 



206 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

Ill a few days more tliaii a montli from tliat time the 
Queen was liastil^^ summoned toFrogmore, the residence 
of her mother, to see that motlier for tlie last time alive. 
With the Prince she harried from Backingliam Palace, 
tlie way " seeming long to her." Arrived at Frogmore, 
the Queen says: " Albert went up first, and when he 
returned Avith tears in his eyes I saw what awaited me." 

With a trembling heart I went ux) the staircase and 
entered the bed-room, and here on a sofa supported by 
cusliions sat leaning back my beloved mamma, breathing 
rather heavily, but in her silk dressing-gown with her 
cap on looking quite herself. I knelt before her, kissed 
her dear hand, and placed it next m^^ cheek ; but though 
she opened her eyes she did not, I think, know me. She 
brushed my hand off, and the dreadful reality was 
before me that for the first time she did not know the 
child she had ever received with such tender smiles." 

The end was at hand and soon passed. In her first 
grief the Queen says : "But I — I, wretched chihl, who 
had lost the mother I so tenderly loved, from whom for 
these fort3"-one years I had never been parted except for 
a few weeks. What was my case? Mj childhood, 
everytliing seemed to crowd upon me at once. What I 
had dreaded and fouglit off the idea of for years, had 
come and must be borne. Oh, if I could have been with 
her these last weeks ! How I grudge every hour I did 
not si^end wn'tli her ! What a blessing — we went on 
Tuesday. The remembrance of her parting blessing, of 
her dear sweet smile, will ever remain engraven on my 
memory." The Crown Princess came at once from Ger- 
many to console and grieve with her mother. The 
Queen's sister came also to indulge with her the sorrow 
felt in their mutual loss of a loving mother. Her hus- 
band and children were in tender sympathy with the 
Queen doing what could be done to comfort her. Tlie 
whole country mourned the death of the Diu-hess of 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 207 

Kent. She had been a power for good, the i)eople appre- 
ciated that, and they had respected her. 

In the grief of the Queen, the people respectively 
and sincerely sympathized, and this feeling followed her 
to Osborne, to which i)lace she had gone to pass 
the early period of the orphanage which she felt so 
keenly. 

This loss was a sharp blow upon the heart of Queen 
Victoria, but the year was to close leaving a sorrow still 
greater for lier to bear. A grief awaited her to which 
this in comparison was as nothing. 

The Queen loved the happy home scenes in which she 
indulged when possible with her husband and children. 
Both herself and the Prince delighted in domestic life. 
When the family of children were young and still un- 
broken, the "Swiss Cottage" at Osborne had been given 
them by their father to commemorate a birthday of their 
motlier. 

This fairy mansion had in it a model kitchen, where 
the young princesses indulged -in culinary and other 
domestic performances. In the grounds surrounding it, 
all the royal children had gardens where each one w^orked 
industriously, in his or her garden, at certain times. 

The proceedings Avere directed by a gardener, who 
gave all instructions in flower-raising or agriculture; and 
he also gave each a certificate of the nmount of work 
done, which the Prince redeemed on presentation to him 
paying a stipulated sum according to the amount of labor 
I)erformed. 

One of the prett^^ domestic scenes at this place is told 
of by the Queen: "At twenty minutes past five," she 
says, "We landed at our peaceful Osborne, The evening 
was very warm and calm. Dear AfiQe was on the pier, 
and we found all the other children, including baby, 
standing at the door. We went with the children, Alice 
and I driving, to the Swiss Cottage, which was decked 



208 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEiS". 

out ^Yitll flags in liouor of Affie's birthday, I sat at diinier 
between Albert and Affie. The two little boys appeared. 
A baud i^layed, and after dinner we danced, with the 
three boys and three girls, a merr}^ country dance on tlie 
terrace." 

The Prince described tlieir youngest daughter as an 
extremely attractive, pretty, intelligent child; " indeed, 
t!ie most amusing IvAhy we have had. " On her first 
birthday " she looked charming, with a new light blue 
cap. Her table of birthday gifts has given her the 
greatest pleasure, especially a lamb. " His eldest 
daughter, the Prince said, had " a man's head and a 
child's heart. " He said, "Alfred," (the Duke of Edin- 
burgh) " looks ver}^ nice and handsome in his new naval 
cadet's uniform — the round jacket and the long-tailed 
coat, with the broad knife by his side. The Princess 
Alice he pronounced a handsome young woman of grace- 
ful form and presence, a help and a stay to us all in the 
house, and the Princess Helena, *Lenchen, ' is very dis- 
tinguished." 

" Little Arthur, " the Duke of Connaught, his father 
thought amiable and full of promise; but the h'dhj evi- 
dently amused him greatly. Of her he wrote many 
quaint things. At one time: "The little aunt makes 
daily i)rogress, and is really too comical. When she 
tumbles, she calls out in bewilderment, she doesn't like 
it and when she came into breakfast a short time ago, 
with her eyes full of tears, moaning, ^Baby has been so 
naughty, — i)oor baby so naughty ! ' as one might com- 
plain of being ill or having slept badly." 

The Prince of Wales had come to America to be wel- 
comed by the people. Besides the possessions belonging 
now the English Crown on the Western Continent, he 
also saw that Avhich George IH. had lost to it. The 
Duke of Edinburgh had become a sailor, aiul had gone 
on a two years' cruise. The Princess Eovnl was Crown 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEERS'. 209 

Princess of Germany, and the Princess Alice destined to 
be the Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt, when the 
great trouble of her life was casting closer its shadow 
on the Queen of England. 

The autumn of 1861 the Queen and her family i3assed 
at Balmoral. The Crown Prince and Princess of Ger- 
many, with their children, had paid tbem a Summer 
visit; and on the Prince s birtday the Queen wrote to 
her uncle of Belgium: " This is the dearest of days, and 
one which tills my lieart with love and gratitude." 

Balmoral, like Osborne, was a place of delight to the 
Queen and Prince, From it she wrote that year: " Be- 
ing out a good deal here and seeing new and fine scenery 
does me good;" and of an excursion in the Higblands 
she says: " I have enjoyed nothing so much, or felt so 
much cheered bj' anything since my great sorrow." 

Meantime the civil war was begun in the United 
States. In the early days of May, 1861, it was the 
opinion of Lord John Eussell, formed after having con- 
sulted the law officers of the Government, and expressed 
in the House of Commons, that the Southern Confederacy 
must be recognized b}^ England as a belligerent power. 
In the middle of the same month, the Government de- 
cided to remain neutral, and issued a proclamation to 
that effect, and " warning all subjects of her Majesty 
from enlisting on land or sea in the service of Federals 
or Confederates, or in any way affording assistance to 
either." 

IS'otwith Stan ding this prohibition, i^rivateers were 
constructed in England for the Confederate Navy, the 
most famous of these being the Alabama, which was 
known as " 290", until launclied, when she steamed out 
to sea and hoisted the Confederate flag with Captain 
Eaphael Semmes in command. She was, however, x)ro- 
vided with a British flag also, which was used as a decoy 



210 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

in capturing mercliant vessels, and of tbese sne captured 
about severity belonging to northern men. 

Very earnestlj^ Louis I^^apoleon desired to recognize 
tke Sontb, and nsed every effort to induce England to 
join with him in that measnre. It was in the plan of 
Kapoleon III. to establish the Empire of Mexico at that 
time, which he finally did, with Maximilian of Austria as 
Emperor, Him lie had jiursuaded to accept the throne 
of Mexico, and " deluded liim to his doom." 

England did not at any rate join with ^N'apoleon. Tlie 
Prince Consort, a peaceful as well as a just man, opposed 
the i)roject of meddling between the Korth and the 
South; and when the complication of the Trent affair 
came up, the Prince declared for pacific measures, which 
were finally effectual. With President Lincoln on one 
side of the water, and the Prince Consort on the other, 
each of them just men, slow to auger, the Hotspurs on 
either side were thrust out of the way, and the difficulty 
was tided over. 

Cai^tain Wilkes' interi^osition, though voted injudi- 
cious, was after all a providential one, for had Mr. Slidell 
reached the French Court and Mr. Mason that of Eng- 
land direct, instead of making their enforced st;iy in a 
fort in New York harbor for a period long enough to 
give the Federals an opportunity to show that there 
was danger in receiving them as envoys from the Con- 
federacy, there is no telling what might have happened 
in the then condition of the popular mind in those 
countries. 

It was January 1st, 1862, before the envoys of the 
Confederacy sailed for Europe after being released by 
the American Government. On Saturday night, Decem- 
ber 14Lh, 1861, the great bell of St. Paul rung about 
midnight a knell that struck consternation upon the 
heart of London. It had fallen upon the heart of Hie 
Queen with killing force. The Prince Consort wh,s 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 211 

(lead; and that event, coming n])on the nation with stun- 
ning power, banished out of the minds of the peo^de 
otlier considerntions save tlie exceeding loss which the 
Queen and the country had sustained. Even when the 
bell began to toll, few of the outside world knew its 
meaning, so short had been the illness of the Prince, 
and so few were aware of his serious illness outside of 
the royal household. 

The Queen refused to believe that there was danger 
of death for the husband who was the life of her life — 
" soul of her soul. " The Prince appears to have realized 
his condition, for to the Princess Alice, he said: " Your 
mother cannot benr to hear me speak of it yet." Six 
days before the Prince's death, the Court Circular men- 
tioned a feverish cold contracted by him, which confined 
him to his room. Then it was given out, three days be- 
fore lie died, that the Prince was " suffering from fever, 
unattended by unfavorable symptons, but likely from its 
symi)toms to continue for some time." 

The Queen was constantly with him, her heart torn 
with anxiety, but still refusing to believe the worst. 
She " found him looking very wretched" one morning, 
and she says, " He did not smile, or take much notice of 
me. His manner all along was so unlike himself, and he 
had at times such a strange wild look." On the same 
evening there was a change, when the Queen says: "I 
found my Albert most dear and affectionate, and quite 
himself, when I went in with little Beatrice, whom he 
kissed. He laughed at some of her Fiench verses, which 
1 made her rei)eat, tljen he held her little hand in his for 
some time, and she stood looking at him. T!ie Princess 
Alice read to him, and played for him the German airs 
he loved. He was fanciful, and used to look at a picture 
of the Madonna, saying that * it helped him through the 
day.' " 



212 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

The day before liis deatli, December 13tli, liis fever 
began to be fierce and wasting. Exhaustion induced 
congestion of the lungs. He was able to tell the Queen 
on the day he died, that the singing of the birds outside 
his window in Windsor Castle reminded him of those he 
used to hear in his childhood in Germany. lie knew the 
Queen to the last. She bent over him saying: "Tis your 
own little wife," he bowed his head and answered by a 
kiss— his hist ! 

With wonderful courage the loving wife kept her 
place by his side — kept it calmly that sob or tear of hers 
should not disturb the tranquility of his last moments. 
His eyes turned to hers until the lids dropped over them 
and the spirit that had animated him had lied. 

At exactly ten minutes before eleven o'clock at night, 
December 14th, 1861, the spirit of Prince Albert depart- 
ed in the presence of the Queen, the Prince of Wales, 
the Princesses Alice and Helena, the Dean of Windsor, 
Prince Ernest of Leiningen, and the i^hysicians and others 
in attendance. 

The Queen rose up when all was over and said she 
knew that all that could be done had been done. She 
then passed out of the death chamber into the x)rivacy 
of her own, where she was alone with her grief — alone 
forever more. 

Her sorrow she must herself bear. No one could bear 
it for her in the smallest measure. Great as her love 
had been, so was her sorrow, and the wail from the deso- 
late heart, " there is no one living now to call me Vic- 
toria," was eloquent of her feeling of desolation. The 
worst was feared for the Queen when it became known 
that the Prince was no more. How close her life had 
been knit to his was so well understood, that it was an 
immense relief in the general gloom when from Windsor 
came the tidings, " The Queen has had some hours 
sleep. " 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 213 

Four days after the death of her husband, the Queeu, 
accompauied by the Princess Alice, drove to Frogmore. 
Here she selected the site where now stands the Mauso- 
leum erected to the memory of Prince Albert, and where 
his remains were laid. It is a lovely spot, one she liked 
better as the resting-place for her beloved dead, than 
the gloomy royal vaults to which her line had been con- 
signed. 

Could the Prince see the monument erected to his 
memory in this beautiful place, which in life he loved to 
look on, his art-loving, beauty -loving soul must be satis- 
fied that just Avhat he would desire had been done in the 
situation. 

Soon after her husband's death, the Qneen said to one 
near her, " I have had God's teaching, and learned to 
bear all He lays upon me." The poignant grief had to 
be endured, but how sharp it was and how fixed, the 
years of retirement passed by the stricken Queen must 
testif}^ 

The world moves on though persons die; and duties 
so great as those devolving ux^on a sovereign must be 
performed. With God's teaching the afflicted Queen 
had the teachings of her good mother to guide her, at 
whose knee she had been taught her duty to others and 
to herself; and all her years of married life had been 
daily lessons in the same direction, in which her beloved 
husband had been her teacher. 

Lord Baconsfield testified x>ublicl3^: "There is not a 
desi)atch received from abroad, nor sent from this 
country abroad, which is not submitted to the Queen. 
The w^hole of the internal administration of this country 
greatly depends ui)on the sign-manual of our sovereign, 
and it may be said that her signature has never been 
placed to any x)ublic document of which she did not 
know the purx)ose, and of which she did not approve. 
Those Cabinet Councils of which you all hear, and 



214 IIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

which are necessarily the scene of' anxious and import- 
ant deliberation, are reported, on tlieir termination, by 
the Minister to the Sovereign, and tbej^ often call for 
her critical remarks, requiring considerable attention; 
and I will venture to say that no person likely to ad- 
minister the affairs of this country would be likely to 
treat the suggestions of her Majesty with indifference, 
for at this moment there is probably no person living 
wlio has such complete control over the political con- 
dition of England as the Sovereign herself." 

On her first return to Balmoral after her bereavement 
slie was called upon by the Eev. Korman McLeod, who 
offered her advice about the resignation which she was 
bound to accept. Tiie Queen afterward sent for him. 
"She was," he says, "alone. She met me with an un- 
utterly sad expression, which filled my eyes with tears, 
and at once began to speak of the Prince. She spoke of 
his excellences — his love, his cheerfulness; how he 
was everything to her. She said she never shut her 
eyes to trials, but liked to look them in the face; how 
she would never shrink from duty, but that all was at 
present done mechanically ; that her highest ideas of 
purity and love were obtained from him, and that God 
could not be displeased with her love." 

It was a dear, sad duty imposed on the widowed 
Queen to see completed by marriage the betrothal of 
the Princess Alice, at which her father had been present 
and pleased. At Osborne this very quiet wedding was 
celebrated, after which the Princess went with her hus- 
band to her German home. 

The Queen's half-sister, Feodore, has said that the 
greatest comfort now enjoyed by the Queen was in be- 
.ieving that her husband's spirit was ever present with 
her, because he had promised her that so it should be; 
and undoubtedly the consolation in that faith was very 
great to her, since, in some measure, it filled the void 



FIFTX YEARS A QUEEN. 215 

made by his absence everywhere about her. Whatever 
she thought he would do at such or such an hour, were 
he present, she did, and just as he would do it. Thus 
did she visit his dogs, his cows, or a horse, which he was 
in the habit of looking after, and at the exact hours that 
he used to do it. 

The offering of English widows to the Queen in token 
of their sympathy with her was a Bible very handsomely 
bound, presented by the Duchess of Sutherland, who 
had been Mistress of the Eobes when the Queen first 
came to the throne. On the receipt of this gift her 
Majesty wrote: " My dearest Duchess: I am deeply 
touched by the gift of a Bible *from many widows,' and 
by the kind and affectionate address that accomi)anied 
it. Pray express to all those kind sister widows the 
deep and heartfelt gratitude of their widowed Queen, 
who can never feel grateful enough for the universal 
sympathy she has received and continues to receive 
from her loyal and devoted subjects. But what she 
values far more is their appreciation of her adored and 
perfect husband. To her the only sort of consolation 
she experiences is in the constant sense of his unseen 
presence, and the blessed thought of an Eternal union 
hereafter, which will make the bitter anguish of the 
present appear as naught. That our Heavenly Father 
may imi)art to many widows these sources of conso- 
lation and support is their broken-hearted Queen's 
earnest prayer." 

For the last time the Duchess of Sutherland appeared 
in attendance on the Queen, on the occasion of the mar- 
riage of the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alexandra 
of Denmnrk, which took place in St. George's Chapel, 
March 10th, 1863. It was more than two years since 
the death of the Prince; yet the Queen was unable, 
even on so important an occurrence as the marriage of a 



216 E^lFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

Prince of Wales, to take other part in tlie ceremony than 
her appearance there. 

From the royal gallery she looked down upon the 
splendid scene in her widow's weeds, with doubtless the 
"unseen presence" of her husband in her heart and 
consciousness; and if for a moment her mind could have 
turned from tliouglit of him, here at the marriage of his 
eldest son, the heir to the crown, her whole being was 
awakened into grievously active remembrance of lier 
own, his children's, and the country's loss in him. 

At her coronation and marriage, tlie Duchess of 
Sutherland had been in attendance on her Majesty — the 
principal lady of her household. Life then was at its 
brightest for the young Sovereign and for the lovely 
Duchess. 1:^0 w both are sister-widows, contemplating 
from a distance a like scene of impressive grandeur as 
that in which Victoria the girl-queen had then partici- 
pated in herself, the radiant central figure. She bad 
then been in the dawn of her womanhood, her life re- 
plete witii full promise of happiness, and she cannot 
now behold too near scenes that recall them — they touch 
the wound in lier heart and pierce afresh its soreness. 

It was five years after the death of Prince Albert 
before her Majesty again appeared on her throne in the 
House of Lords to open Parliament in person. A new 
ministry had been formed, with Lord John Russell as 
Premier, and the Jamaica complication was a prominent 
question at that time to which the Queen gave 
attention. 

Henceforth at intervals the Queen left her seclusion at 
Osborne, Balmoral, or Windsor to appear on State oc- 
casions, to the gratification of her people. 

The Princess Helena had been married to Prince 
Christian of Schleswig-Holstein without the demonstra- 
tion that usually accompanies a royal marriage. At 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 21 7 

that time lier Majesty's grief was still too great to 
permit of lier apijeariug at festivities. 

It was more than teu years after her father's death that 
the Princess Louise was married to the Marquis of 
Lome at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The ceremony 
was observed with royal pomp and splendor of circum- 
stance. As tlie Queen had done at the marriage of the 
Princess Eoynl, her eldest daughter, slie now stood by 
the side of the Princess Louise, smiling graciously. 

Under a shower of rice and white satin slippers the 
bride and groom departed for Claremont, where their 
honeymoon was i3assed. Tliese bridal festivities were 
the first that the Queen had participated in since the 
death of her husbaud ten years and three months before. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE QUEEN'S CONGRATULATION OVER THE ATLANTIC 
CABLE TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES — 
FRIENDLY FEELING TO AMERICA - SYMPATHY TO AMER- 
ICA ON THE LOSS OF ITS GREAT MEN— THE SULTAN 
OF TURKEY AND THE SHAH OF PERSIA IN ENGLAND- 
DISRAELI BECOMES PRIME MINISTER— THE CONQUEST 
OF ABYSSINIA — CAPTURE OF THE ZULU KING— SERIOUS 
ILLNESS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES —AFTER TWELVE 
YEARS OF WIDOWHOOD HER MAJESTY WEARS A 
WHITE FLOWER IN HER BONNET —TALE OF THE 
FRENCH EMPIRE— THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF 
FRANCE IN EXILE —THE QUEEN MADE EMPRESS OF INDIA 
— DISRAELI CREATED EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 

On the completion of tlie Atlantic cable in July, 1866, 
the Queen telegraphed congTatulations over it to tlie 
President of tlie United States. The enterprise was 
hailed on either side of the Atlantic as one of vast 
importance; and since it was the conceptlon,worked out 
to completion, of an enterprising American (Mr. Cyrus 
W. Field), it was regarded as a strictly American adven- 
ture. 

Prince Albert had been friendly to the United States. 
His policy towards the nation had been one strictly just. 
The sophistry of Napoleon III., who had earnestly conn 
selled taking advantage of its critical position during 
the Civil War, was not potent to move him from the 
2J8 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 219 

l)OSition on whicli he liad taken liis staud; and the order 
from the English government of strict neutrality, and for- 
bidding the fitting out of privateers for the confederate 
service in England, was in accordance with the policy 
which he had marked ont,and which the Queen afterwards 
followed. 

Naturally, perhaps, peopie in England like Mr. Laird, 
whose interest it was to keep his ship-yards active,were 
in favor of feeding the flames of our Civil War. Or 
men like Carlyle, whose philosophy was in that current, 
were in favor of the recommendation which he made: 
"Its a dirty chimney" (the United States); "let it burn 
itself out." But the Queen was fair in her treat- 
ment of America, as her husband had been ; and she had 
continued to be friendly. 

When the nation was mourning the death by assassi- 
nation of President Lincoln, and afterwards that of 
President Garfield, the Queen of England's sympathy 
was expressed warmly; and on the death of the nation's 
great General (Ulysses S. Grant), her sympathy was 
again manifest. 

At periods between the year 1840, when the first 
attempt was made upon her Majesty's life,and 1882, when 
the last was made, she had been six times assailed by 
pistols presented at her person — sometimes being shot at; 
and she once received a blow in the face. In such cir- 
cumstances, while the shock to her nervous system must 
have been great, and the fear of such occurrences con- 
stantly present to her mind, it is a remarkable fact that 
no shot so fired ever hit her, the blow in the face given 
by Pate inflicting the only bodily injury which she ever 
received 

Perhai^s it is worthy of comment too, that, while the 
Queen travelled in many countries — visited Scotland 
frequently and Ireland(her most turbulent possession) on 
more than one occasion, she encountered not the slightest 
molestation outside of England, where every one of those 



^20 FIFTY YEARS A QUEElvr. 

outrages were perpetrated— tlie last two in 1872 and 1882, 
during her widowhood, by persons proved to be imbecile 
or insane. 

Tlie Alabama, the Florida, and the Shenandoah, sent out 
from English ship-yards without the consent of the Queen 
or her ministers, finally cost the Englisli Government 
three millions and a quarter sterling, tlie award made the 
United States for the destruction of property hj those 
vessels. With this settlement the chapter of Civil War 
record in this direction has been closed, its conclusion 
leaving England and Americ i on terms of friendship. 

As other potentates had visited her Majesty of Eng- 
land, the Sultan of Turkey, Abdul-Aziz, arrived to pay 
his respects in 1867. The Queen received him with the 
cordiality characteristic on such occasions. He was 
conducted in State to the opera; entertained by the city 
of London, and accompanied to a review of the fleet at 
Spitheadby the Queen. 

After him came the Shah of Persia, who was also re- 
ceived, entertained, and amused. In 1868, on the retire- 
ment of Lord Derby, Disraeli was called by the 
Sovereign to form a ministry^ and he then for the first 
time became Prime Minister of England. 

About that time there were reports of what seemed an 
absurd rumor, of the Emperor of Abyssinia proposing 
marriage to the Queen, and having become very angry 
because his x>roposition had not received an answer. 

Theodore had in his possession many captives, both 
English and German. These included women and 
children as well as men. Some of them were missionaries 
who had ventured into Theodore's dominion for the 
l^urpose of converting to Christianity the people and him- 
self. All, however, were seized and detained. Although 
a savage, Theodore was a i)roud sovereign, who traced 
his descent back to the Queen of Sheba, and who 
believed that his Abyssinian warriors were capable of 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 221 

defeating any power who would oppose them. He there- 
fore paid little heed to England's demand for the release 
of the captives in his hands; and when an English army 
appeared before his capital, Magdala, in April, 1808, Le 
was not a bit daunted until his forces were defeated. 
He then delivered up the captives -some of whom he 
had held for years, but he would not surrender. An- 
other engagement with his forces occurred, Magdala 
was captured by the English, and Theodore was found 
dead within the fortress, having taken his own life. 

England's difficulty with the Zulu KingCetewayo was 
an aft'air more recent, and with a termination differing 
only in the particular that the Zulu King was captured 
alive. One feature of the Zulu War has made it memor- 
able—the death of Prince Louis Napoleon (the Prince 
Imperial of France) at the hands of the Zulus. 

An excitment had been created in England in 1872, 
by Sir Charles Dilke's motion in the House of Commons 
to inquire into the manner in which the revenues of the 
Crow^n were expended. Previous to that time Dilke had 
been making speeches throughout the north of England 
on this subject, and on the introduction of this motion in 
the House of Commons a scene of confusion was presented 
that beggared discription. It was regarded as a republi- 
can movement that met vociferous opposition. There 
were very few Eepublicans to support it. In a certain 
sense the movement was regarded as a covert attack 
upon some of the princes, particularly the Prince of 
AVales; and when his Eoyal Highness became ill of a 
fever resembling that of which the Prince Consort died, 
the whole nation rallied as one in pouring out sympathy 
on the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and the whole royjil 
family. For days the life of the Prince hung in the 
balance between life and death, and w^hen life won in 
the conflict, there was such an outpouring of thankfulness 



223 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEi^-. 

from every beart as assured the Queen of tlie love and 
loyalty of her subjects. 

By tbe bedside of ber sou tbe Queen bad watebed 
unremittingly. Tbe sorrow tbat bad so long beld ber in 
bonds gave way before tbis new one tbat claimed all of 
bertbougbts, attention, and feeling; and tbe first speck 
of wbite tbat bad appeared in ber dress since ber widow- 
hood was tbe wbite flower wbicb sbe wore in ber 
bonnet as sbe sat by bis side in St. Paul's, wbere sbe 
went witb bim to return tbanks for tbe mercy of bis re- 
covery. Tbe tide of loyal affection tbat bad set in 
towards tbe Queen and tbe royal family by reason of tbe 
sympathies of the people, aroused by the touching con- 
dition of tbe Prince of Wales in his illness, disposed 
effectually of Sir Charles Dilke's motion. It was no 
more heard of. 

Tbe Emperor of France felt deeply bis failure to 
establish in Mexico a monarchial form of govern- 
ment. The pitiful and fearful ending of his effort 
in that direction chagrined bim. His pride was wounded 
by tbe humiliating consciousness tbat be did not dare to 
attempt to maintain his forces there in the face of tlie 
mandate of the American Government to either witb 
draw them, or accept the consequences of a refusal; 
and he conceived the idea that his popularity as a mili- 
tary ruler was thereby put in peril. 

To restore himself in his own esteem and in tbat of 
others became bis great desire. To this end be endea- 
vored to induce England to unite with France in an 
intervention between Eussia and Poland while these 
countries were at war, but without success. The opin- 
ion formed ofbiraby tbe Prince Consort years before, 
when, as Justin McCarthy says, "tbe Prince Consort 
appears to have judged tbe Emperor almost exactly as 
impartial opinion has judged him everywhere in Europe 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 223 

since that time," was now shared by the Queen and her 
Prime Minister. 

Looking about him for the desired opportunity, it 
seemed to be presented in the fact that on the flight of 
Queen Isabella, Spain had invited to become its king-, 
Prince Leopold of Hohenzolleru-Sigmaringen, a member 
of the royal family of Prussia, but distantly related to 
the king. That a candidate for the throne of Spain 
should be chosen without previous consultation with 
him, he held to be an iudignity to France; and as the 
Prince so chosen was of Prussia, he demanded that the 
King of Prussia should forbid Prince Leopold's accej)t- 
ance of the offered crown. King William put forth a 
declaration that Prussia had no part in the selection of 
Prince Leopold. The Spanish government sent the 
Emperor the assurance that the choice had been made 
without consultation with Prussia or any foreign power. 
Prince Leopold also declined to be a candidate for the 
Spanish crown; yet the French Emperor persisted in the 
demand that the King of Prussia should, in an auto- 
graph letter, pledge himself that no prince of the house 
of Hohenzollern should ever at any future time become 
a candidate for the Spanish crown. Bismarck refused 
to lay this proposition before his sovereign, when the 
French minister at the Prussian Court addressed the 
demand to the king in person, whom he encountered in 
a public walk at Ems. The king made no answer; but 
he presently sent word that he would receive no com- 
munications on that subject. 

On July 19th, 1870, France declared war against 
Prussia because of the insult offered to the French Am- 
bassador, the refusal of the king to compel Prince Leo- 
pold to withdraw from the candidature of the Spanish 
crown, and because the Prince was left at liberty to 
accept the crown if it should be formally offered to him. 



224 FIFT^ YEARS A QUEEN. 

On August 31st, the Frencli were beaten at Sedan. 
Napoleon gave np Ms sword, saying: "My brother, since 
it has not been vouchsafed me to meet death in the 
midst of my troops, I lay my sword at the feet of your 
Majesty." 

The Empress fled to Eugland, and was received by 
Queen Victoria with kindness and sympathy; and as 
soon afterwards as circumstances permitted, she was 
joined there by her husband,who had been the Emperor 
of France when she had last seen him, but who was 
now a fugitive and exile. 

On January 9th, 1873, Louis Nai^oleon closed his life 
at Chiselhurst, Kent. Since he had been a special con- 
stable in London he had filled a position in the world's 
history almost fabulous in its sidendor and power. In 
England his position when doing duty as a constable, 
and that which he occui)ied when he died, were not 
materially different, so far as importance attaching to 
his presence; but Eugenie, the ex-Empress, had retained 
the affection of the Queen and of the nation, who re- 
spected her, and who love and resx)ect her still. 

In 1876, Queen Victoria received the title of Empress 
of Lidia. This was announced early in the Parliamentary 
session of that year by Disraeli, and fiercely opposed by 
some members, who held that any other title than Queen 
of Great Britain and Ireland was superfluous and wholly 
without meaning, except in the sense of detracting by 
an unworthy addition from the ])iiYe luster of the crown 
of her Majesty. 

The keen wit of the great statesman discovered a way 
of not only reconciling the English mind to the inno- 
vation, but of making it desired. It was, Disraeli declar- 
ed, "necessary to assert the position of the sovereign as 
supreme ruler over the whole empire of India;" and 
conq^uest-loving England saw in the distance the " Eus^ 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 225 

sian specter" and acquiesced. The imperial title was 
confirmed, and her Majesty Queen Victoria of Great 
Britain and Ireland became Empress of India besides. 

With the close of the debates on the Eastern question 
in that Parliament, it became known that Disraeli had 
been created Earl of Beaconsfield by the Queen. He be- 
gan liis political career as a member of the House of Com- 
mons in the first Parliament that was opened by the 
Queen after she came to the throne. 

He had made his way against tremendous odds. By 
his talent and invincible perseverance he had raised 
himself to a high station in the estimation of his col- 
leagues and of the people. I^ow he was ennobled by 
the Sovereign whom he had so faithfully served. 



CHAPTEE XXy. 



THE PRINCESS OF W^LES— THE DUCHESS OF EDIN- 
BURaH AND THE WIVES OF THE OTHER PRINCES -THE 
QUEEN'S DOMINIONS— COURTS OF OTHER TIMES— MORAL 
ASPECTS— DOMESTIC LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA— THE 
DAUGHTERS OF THE QUEEN — THE CROWN PRINCESS OF 
GERMANY AND THE PRINCESS ALICE OF HESSE-DARMs 
STADT— WOMEN'S INDUSTRIES IN GERMANY— TEACHING 
WOMEN TO WORK AND OPENING AVENUES OF LABOR — 
THE QUEEN ENCOURAGING INDUSTRIAL AND DOMESTIC 
ART IN ENGLAND— FIFTY YEARS' REIGN AND RESULTS 
DURING IT. 

From the moment of lier coming into England the 
affection of the English people went out to the Princess 
of Wales. Her beauty of person, sweetness of disposi- 
tioD, and charm of manner won for her the hearts of the 
Queen, the royal family, and the people of England. 

The Duchess of Edinburgh has perhaps been less 
hax)py in this respect. A daughter of the Czar of 
Eussia — a great power, frequently found in opposition 
to the interests of England or in the way of her ambi- 
tions — the Euglish people have not too warmly regard- 
ed this Princess, avIio is probably to them in some 
measure a living representative of Russia. 

The Duchess of Connaught and the Duchess of Al- 
bany, the wives of the two younger sons of the Queen, 
226 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 227 

being German Princesses, unlike the royal daughter of 
the Eussian Emperor, brought with them to England no 
traditional disability calculated to lessen the warmth 
of the i)eople's affectionate interest in the wives of their 
native princes. Tbe widowhood of the Duchess of Al- 
bany, added to her youth and the touching circumstan- 
ces of the brief period in which her husband was spared 
to her before a sudden death snatched him away, incline 
all hearts towards her very warmly. 

More than a half a century ago, at the close of the 
reign of George lY., Ireland and its concerns formed a 
vexed question that perplexed greatly the later years of 
his life. O'Oonnell was so distasteful to him that he 
detested his very presence. Once, on noticing him at a 
gathering where bis majesty appeared, the King hastily 
turned his back on the great agitator, and said to some 
one near him, "What brings that d d fellow here ? " 

During the brief reign of William lY., Ireland con- 
tinued to be an anxious subject; and throughout the 
fifty years of Queen Yictoria's reign it has been, and 
it still is, a disquieting one. Ireland, however, forms 
the sole exception to a tranquil and harmonious rule 
throughout her dominions. Her possessions in North 
America, stretching from sea to sea, and in Australia, of 
enormous extent and of prodigious value, constantly 
increasing, have systems of government satisfactory to 
themselves and to the home Government. In India she 
is " supreme ruler"— its Empress. Her reign has ex- 
tended England's dominion. It has brought it the re- 
cognition of the world as a nation conspicuously pros- 
perous, powerful, and progressive. 

" The English like queens," the Duchess Dowager of 
Coburg said, when Queen Yictoria was in her early in- 
fancy and the " dangerous grandeur" of the crown was 
an exceedingly remote contingency. Politically and 
morally the partiality of the English people for queens 



228 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEIT. 

must find a powerful support in the contemplation of the 
fifty years' reign of Victoria, particularly when the 
court of England, as she has made it, is compared with 
the courts of the Georges, with that of William, or with 
those of other kings that came before. 

The first George came to England bringing with him 
his two mistresses from Hanover. George IL, although 
he had a Qaeen whom he professed to love, and who 
certainly did love him, was an unfaithful husband, with- 
out disguise a libertine. George III., while not inconti- 
nent himself, had sons who disgraced his court by theirs. 
In every moral aspect these princes were contrasts, and 
not agreeable ones, to the royal sons of Queen Victoria. 
The fourth George was a wonderfully dissolute creature; 
and at William's court were the Fitz-Olarences and 
other similar features. 

Victoria's reign began at a time when immorality, if 
not the rule, was at any rate well-established. During 
her reign, however, among the unclean elements of pre- 
vious reigns moral seeds have been planted that have 
borne good fruit; and while the political fortunes of the 
nation have been administered with wisdom and ability, 
the morality of it has been nurtured and has grown far 
and wide. 

From the first the Queen was specially favored in be- 
ing the child of a good and wise mother, who reared her 
with judicious care, and in being the wife of an excel- 
lent Prince, who was both sagacious and righteous. By 
her mother she was trained for " intelligence and good- 
ness," as Justin McCarthy says. She placed the most 
implicit trust in her mother, and yielded her, in her 
youth, entire and affectionate obedience. Upon her 
marriage with Prince Albert — a complete marriage of 
heart, soul, and intellect— the " goodness and intelli- 
gence" previously developed in her were made more 
abundant and positive by companioushii) and friction 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 220 

with a refined and lofty nature, that became one with her 
own. 

The influence of her husband, readily and tenderly 
responded to by the royal wife, was all for good. From 
childhood to womanbood forces for good had environed 
her. At that point she placed her hand in that of 
another who led her carefully in the same course. 

The Prince Consort's views as to the fitness of one 
who rules were expressed by him. " To my mind," he 
says, " the exaltation of royalty is only possible through 
the personal character of the sovereign;" and that the 
Queen coincided in that view her conduct of life bears 
testimony. 

The fifty years of Victoria's sovereignty have passed 
onto history's i^age. The world reads of and sees its 
results politically. In the personal relations of wife, 
mother, daughter, and sister, history portrays her too. 
In the first dazzling splendor of her i^osition as Queen 
" of the mightiest nation of the earth," when she was in 
her girlhood, it occurred to her that it was her " sacred 
duty" to pay her father's debts; and that was one of the 
first sovereign acts which she performed. At the time 
of her mother's death, more than twenty years later, and 
when she herself had become a grandmother, her filial 
grief burst forth in the cry, " But I— I, wretched child 
who had lost the mother I so tenderly loved, from whom 
these forty-one years I have never been parted except 
for a few weeks, what was my case ?" 

As a wife she had been loving and entirely devoted. 
In her august station, she accorded her " adored and 
perfect husband" an obedience as complete and tender, 
while he lived, as wife could do; and after he died she 
found his " unseen presence, of which she had a con- 
stant sense, and the blessed thought of an eternal 
union hereafter," her highest joy. 



230 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

The manner of lier cbildren's nurture may be deduced 
from the useful activity of their lives. When the Prin- 
cess Royal was but four years old, the Queen said, "It is a 
hard case for me that my occupations prevent me from 
being with her when she says her prayers." And later 
she said with regard to this child: " I am quite clear 
tliat she should be taught to have a great reverence for 
God and for religion, but that she should have the feel- 
ing of devotion and love which our heavenly Father en- 
courages His earthly children to have for Him, and not 
one of fear and trembling; and that the thoughts of 
death and an after-life should not be represented in an 
alarming and forbidding view; and that she should be 
made to know as yet no difference of creeds, and not 
think that she can only pray on her knees, or that those 
who do not kneel are less fervent or devout in their 
prayers." 

Whenever it was practical and x>ossible the Queen 
indulged her own tastes, and encouraged those of her 
children, in the simple ways of life. She had been 
reared in great simplicity. Her inclinations were in 
that direction; and Scotland, more than any of her 
dwelling-places, afforded the opportunity to indulge her 
tastes in this way. 

The Eev. Korman McLeod has given glimpses of her 
Majesty's domestic life at Balmoral, from which one is 
given here. " After dinner the Queen invited me to her 
room, where I found the Princess Helena and the Mar- 
chioness of Ely. The Queen sat down to spin on a fine 
Scotch wheel, while I read Burns to her, <Tam O'- 
Shanter' and * A man's a man for a that^ her favorites." 
Among the Queen's visits to the poor in the vicinity of 
Balmoral there is this record by herself; " I went into 
the small cabin of old Kitty Kear, who is eighty-six 
years old, quite erect, and who welcomed us with a great 
air of dignity. I gave her also a warm petticoat. She 



FIFTY YRAR« A QUEEN. 231 

said, *May the Lord be guid to ye, and keep ye fra all 
harm.' " 

The daughters of the Queen who married princes of 
Germany, and who went there to reside, carried with 
them the invaluable habits of usefulness which she had 
inculcated in them. At their respective courts they set 
the fashion, which other women of exalted station 
quickly followed. Through their means several crafts 
were oiDcned for women to enter and pursue. Activities 
amongst women began to prevail, and industries were 
set in motion, with general results of an important char- 
acter. 

In Berlin the Crown Princess induced the telegraph 
companies and otlier institutions to allow women to 
share in their labors. Sbe also founded schools for the 
instruction of women in various crafts and sciences — 
domestic and otherwise. 

In Hesse-Darsmtadt the good and charming Princess 
Alice accomplished similar results. Each of these royal 
women personally attended in the institutions which 
they founded for the instruction of women, laboring in- 
defatigably to make them the successful instruments 
which they have become. 

In England also. Queen Victoria and her daughters 
have encouraged the diffusion of industries among 
women. Industrial art and domestic science received 
attention. The Kensington schools, artistic and culi- 
nary, were inaugurated, and have afforded instruction to 
thousands, who in turn have imparted instruction to 
other thousands. 

The scope and importance which the work of women 
now embraces include almost every craft or calling that 
woman is fitted to eiiter ; and this state of affiiirs is to be 
credited in England to the influence and action of the 
sovereign, and in Germany to her daughters, who led the 
movement there. 



232 FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN. 

In a moral and material sense this lias been vastly im- 
X)ortant and vastlj^ beneficial, since it affords women the 
opportunity to win an honorable livelihood and a self- 
respecting independence. It is a wise state policy, be- 
cause it is a means of keei)ing" women pure, from whom 
the race must emanate, and because the revenues derived 
from women's work swell greatly those of the country 
where thej are j)ursued. 

Fifty years ago, at the beginning of Queen Victoria's 
reign, the avenues of labor open to women were so few, 
and the opportunities for gaining an honorable living so 
meagre and precarious, that the sacrifice of womanhood 
and the wretchedness of woman's life Avas corresj^ond- 
Ingly great, a situation now hai)x>ily changed in England 
by the sovereign. 

Each of the Queen's daughters she has been at 
X)ains to make accomplished in this particular. The 
Crown Princess of Germany — who will be its Empress — 
and who, her father said, had " a man's head and the 
heart of a child," is adored by the Germans. Her 
ability, simplicity, and goodness have entirely won their 
love and respect. So was the Grand Duchess of Hesse- 
Darmstadt beloved in her husband's dominions, where 
her death is mourned; and the good works whicli she 
there imj)! anted represent " the flowers scattered after 
the footsteps." 

The Princess Alice and Prince Leopold, of scholastic 
attainments, are gone from among the living. Those 
who are left of her Majesty's children are certainly better 
specimens of royalty — more comely and useful in the 
world — than those who preceded them, as history de- 
X)icts them. 

They are rei:)resentative personages, from the Prince 
of Wales, upon whom many social duties of state de- 
volve, down to the Princess Beatrice, " the most amusing 
baby we have had," who has been her mother's devoted 



t 



FIFTY YEARS A QUEBN-. 233 

compauion tlirougli the years since her father's death ; 
and who continues to be such, notwithstanding that her 
marriage imposes upon her the additional duties of wife 
and mother. 

Her Majesty Victoria Queen of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and Empress of India, having reigned fifty 
years (and who may rule as long or longer than her 
grandfather George III. did), has now been Queen of 
England for five years longer than Queen Elizabeth had 
been when she died. The reign of Elizabeth was called 
glorious because she contributed to the material pros- 
perity and dignity of England, and to England's x>ower 
among the nations of the earth; therefore are the Eliza- 
bethan days stilled 'recalled with i)ride among the 
English i)eople. 

But should Victoria do no more than she has done in 
the fifty years of her reign, she would be remembered 
now and in the coming time for her wise administration, 
for her beneficent disposition, for the condition to which 
her reign has brought England and her whole posses- 
sions, save Ireland, which may yet in her time be 
rendered x^eaceful and satisfied. 

There will still be something else, however, for which 
she will be remembered — the moral i3ower which she 
has exercised, and the moral elements which that power 
has evolved and si)read abroad, not only in her own 
dominions, but to the extent of her great station through- 
out the world. 

That is a power that makes emjiires safe, nations pros- 
l^erous, and the people happy; and because of it this 
Queen of England will hereafter be known as " Victoria 
the Good!" 

THE END. 



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